Photographing Serrano Style

Andres Serrano is an american photographers who was very prominent in the late 1980's due to some of his controversial photographs however he also has a very unique style when it comes to portraitures. The background is very...erm...'flamboyant' and he generally includes only the subjects face, shoulders and chest in the frame; also they are usually sat at a slight angle and they can be looking into the distance or looking directly at the lens. He used this technique for many of his projects however my favourite is the series 'America' to demonstrate the diversity and the multiculturalism of America. Here are a couple from the series...

          

I then decided to try this technique with my very lovely model! The softbox was placed at a 45° angle to camera from the model and a Serrano-esque background with a snoot shining on the background (to mimic the glowing effect given in Serrano's photographs). A Mamiya RZ 67 was used (with a tripod). I made a lightling diagram to go with the set up...

The soft box provided a nice even low intensity light which is what I was after and as I mentioned earlier the snoot for the glow, the rest was simply a matter of capturing a good photograph. Also, I had a lovely assistant who held a reflector in place just below of the frame to ensure there were no unflattering shadows in the neck region.

It was quite difficult at first because I was not used to the inverted image! However after I got the hang of it I was able to produce some decent photographs, this one being my favourite...

All-in-all I think this is great photograph with fits in with the Serrano style however it is slightly underexposed whereas I noticed that Serrano's portraits then to have more highlights and shadows than mine which is something I would change if I were to do it again, perhaps by using a beauty dish. Also, I realised afterwards that the blow in the background isn't as prominent due to the snoot not being bright enough which is also something I would change.