Commission: The Portrait Issue; Deconstructing Photographs

Finlay MacKay, 'Changing Pace, David Weir' for 'The Road 2012', 2011

Finlay MacKay is a Scottish photographer who works in fine art, fashion, sports and commercial commissions. MacKay's work is most significant because of his method of using multiple negatives pressed together as means to produce one final photograph of great detail and colour. The multiple shots he constructs as one are taken with different lights, high and low key, which then creates a vivid photograph, something that almost seems as unnatural, and in the history of photography is unnatural because of its way of using time and light; multiple rather than just once.

MacKay's series 'The Road 2012' was commissioned in 2007 by The National Portrait Gallery as part of the Cultural Olympiad in which MacKay and Emma Hardy were to document over three years of time Britain's athletes and key figures of London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. MacKay's series is shot with his famous method; by using multiple negatives compressed as one final print, while the athletes were practising for the Olympics – on the road to 2012. This way of portraying the famous athletes the viewer seems them in action, whilst in their work habitant. This gives the glossy heroes a different meaning, and in a way gets them out of the pedestal back being the workers. The heroism dissappears, but because the shots are taken within such a great distance and the frame only captures one athlete, it makes the viewer think as MacKay has made the athlete into something more than a hero; he is untouchable for us.

In the photograph of David Weir, see above, the viewer sees Weir moving with his bicycle, and because the photograph is constructed of multiple exposures in different lights one gets a feeling of speed and energy. All the colours are vivid and poignant; the sky is baby blue and the road reflects into it, which creates a feeling of utopia. This photograph seems as almost too good to be true, like it is a screen shot from a video game. The athlete looks like he is this unnatural being in a place a common person cannot be.

Toby Glanville, 'Actual Life', 2002

Toby Glanville is a British photographer who is currently based in London. His work consist of portraiture as well as food portraiture, and his work has been published in magazines and news papers as he has been commissioned to do photo essays for them. Most of Glanville's work is shot in documentary style. Some of the stories are for food magazines or cook books of food, and others of workers in different professions and work places. One of Glanville's series 'Actual Life' is based upon different workers where Glanville takes portraits as well as shots without people of interiors and urban landscapes.

The photographs of the series mentioned are taken within the workday in a matter of seconds where the worker of question is as natural in their habitat as they can be. For example to prove this one can investigate the photograph of a woman above: she is standing before a noticeboard in a room that seems to be a some kind of play room for children. She is not posing in a sense of, how should I be, but more in a manner, this is who I am. One senses warmth from the woman because of Glanville's usage of natural light, which creates romantic feel of the worker. The woman's facial expression, she is smiling, and the camera position of being on the same height with the woman, gives the viewer a permission to be on the same level with her: emotionally and class-wise. Glanville is only there to document – not to critisize.

In comparision of MacKay's work of the athletes as workers, Glanville wants to show what the workers are really like in their workplace. Glanville's warm natural light compared to MacKay's high key 3D kind of approach in itself makes a huge difference between the photographers' works. Glanville wants to emphasize the Actual Life whereas MacKay wants to show us apart from the actual life – something that has more glimmer and speed, something that is working for 2012.

Ulrich Gebert, 'Freischneider', 2004

Ulrich Gebert is a German photographer. Most of his work speaks about the relationship between mankind and nature. Gebert's series 'Freischneider' is made of four pieces of photography where in one photograph the viewer to sees a man in his hedge cutter uniform from his chest up to his helmet and in next one the viewer sees a tree plant and in another again a man of the same sort and then once in the fourth one again a tree plant. This kind of positioning gives the viewer a feeling of a worker going to cut down these plants. Because of the hard light that one sees in the helmet and the stark gaze of the man as well as his position in the photograph one starts to think about the relationship between the worker and the plant, and the power of men. The viewer gets the idea that the man is powerful, and he is here to do his job. Something of the man also gives the viewer a feeling of him not being natural but more like posed, because of the direction of the man's gaze is looking somewhere in a way that one thinks if he has been said to do so.

Gebert's worker is photographed in profilistic way; it doesn't show anything else that is needed: the helmet, a little bit of a backpack and the man's face. It doesn't lead the viewer to relate with him – in contradiction it takes a bit back because of the closed up frame and camera position that looks a bit up to him: he is this man of power. When comparing this photograph to Glanville's work one feels a great difference immediately; this photograph is almost aggressive whereas Glanville's work is mellow and sympathetic. Gebert's way of portraying a worker is analytical and cold; Glanville's work is sociable and warm. Even though MacKay's work shares the similar otherwordly and sometimes even cold approach to these workers, MacKay's work is more magical whereas Gebert work is more scientific.