The Commission - The Portrait Issue

Finlay Mackay 'Road to 2012 - Changing Pace, David Weir'

 The Road to 2012 is a series by Finlay Mackay, showing different athletes and the training that they are going through in the run up to the 2012 olympic games. This particular image of David Weir shows him training on a country road, this gives us the setting which shows us that he is on a journey and has already come along way to be where he is now. So obviously getting to the olympic games is quite a feat and this metaphorically suggests this. This is also enhanced by the placement of the camera as it is close enough to see the athlete (who he is, what he does etc) but also at a distance to see how far he has come. The sitter, David Weir, does seem to be quite small within the frame as you are able to see lots of land and trees around him this suggests to me that he still has a fair distance or training to complete before he will be ready for the games.

Toby Glanville, 'Actual Life', 2002

 In this image we see a school teacher against a blackboard in her classroom, it is easy to understand who she is and what she does because she has been placed in this setting. The subject is lit with natural light as you are able to see the sun coming through the blinds spilling onto the blackboard, because it is clearly a nice day and there are no children in the photograph suggests that they may be outside playing. The teacher is in the middle of the frame which shows that she is of importance and the items around her just further emphasise the setting.

Ulrich Gebert, 'Freischneider', 2004

Like the first image this one has been set outside due to the persons profession which without looking at the series we would not be sure what this is. The 'headshot' includes the safety gear that this hedge cutter wears while out working which firstly gives us the indication of what he does. The man is set against a clear blue sky which has very little distractions, this keeps the main focus on the subject as this is the important part of the image. This is quite different to the other images because it is a tightly cropped image, you only have the things he is wearing to try and figure out what he does.

Will add more to this.