Shooting a Photograph of Someone Vs. Taking Someone's Portrait

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There’s a difference between merely taking a photo of someone and making a great portrait. The first shows a person, the second tells something about a person. This article contains one hundred photos of the latter.

We recommend clicking show all photos, letting them load, opening the song Photographs by James Murphy in a new tab and scrolling through all photos.

Credits: charly, falsedigital, jazzgohan, larslau, mr-furet, disdis, digital-immigrant, gyllzd, anelfandhiszippo, strangelilgirl, apolessi, elvismartinezsmith, u-t-e, maximum_b, boredbone, reinertlee, ali55, weechonghooi, jaimemilne, renaishashin, herbert-4, joncherry, lolfox, abcdefuck, lomovan, anarchy, superlighter, fotoglove, jeabzz, cocaneonkamerasutra, lavisionmd, a_lion, i_am_four-eyes, thesarahshow, bluedust_05, riki_87, mattcharnock, jcwolf, agnivedic, tallgrrlrocks, herr_zeit, ccwu, cubilas, janisthewanis, geltona, star-pixie, stevenh72, lomoteddy, daitita, adbigmilk, simonjamesonweston, chrius57, annelie, o7a7k7, ilovemydiana, lazara, jelga, myloveletter, amyface, lomographics, breakphreak, fivedayforecast, kingnate, ethermoon, liquidpapercut, stouf & noiway

How did we make this selection? We pulled out all photos containing phrases like great portrait, nice portrait and similar in the comments, went through them and handpicked one hundred. Let us know what you think of these photos, tell us some stories about your experience of taking portraits of friends and strangers and link them in the comments.

2011-04-20 #people #lifestyle #gallery #portrait #photos #james-murphy

51 Comments

  1. lighttomysoul
    lighttomysoul ·

    excellent selection. some of these are pure magic.

  2. eremigi
    eremigi ·

    Agreed: absolutely outstanding selection. And ore or two are amazing.

  3. kernow_and_cambria
    kernow_and_cambria ·

    Cool selection! Heres my own favourite www.lomography.com/homes/kernow_and_cambria/albums/1163747-…

  4. tattso
    tattso ·

    fantastic!

  5. adambradc
    adambradc ·

    Amazing photos a split second in time says so very much - well done on a great collection

  6. arabrab
    arabrab ·

    taking portraits of strangers is a lot of fun, but also kind if scary! this is a project I did in art school www.lomography.com/homes/arabrab/albums/1691402-those-littl…

  7. u-t-e
    u-t-e ·

    Wow! A great selection! And I love that song, a beautiful combination: Lovely music and extraordinary portraits!
    Thanks!

  8. whitemikerocks
    whitemikerocks ·

    I feel like i know these people! great portraits! great song!

  9. disdis
    disdis ·

    nice portrait gallery!

  10. pulex
    pulex ·

    great selection....some of them are pretty stunning...and sometimes i felt like they are looking at me...

  11. pushkar
    pushkar ·

    awesome work

  12. discodrew
    discodrew ·

    Here's my favorite. he he :-) www.lomography.com/homes/discodrew/albums/1693009-holga-wed…

  13. dabai
    dabai ·

    some of the portraits are really awesome. great selection!

  14. mattcharnock
    mattcharnock ·

    wow...wow....and wow

  15. dirklancer
    dirklancer ·

    here's a shameless plug of my favorite: www.lomography.com/homes/dirklancer/photos/11683301

  16. recurving
    recurving ·

    It's not shameless if the photo's great! :) Like it!

  17. grazie
    grazie ·

    amazing selection and i love them all! a personal favorite portrait lately would be www.lomography.com/homes/grazie/albums/1685663-cara/photos/…

  18. angela_silva
    angela_silva ·

    amazzzzing!

  19. ariannapaloma
    ariannapaloma ·

    it's so hard to make a real good portrait! this selection is great!

  20. squamy
    squamy ·

    Such an amazing gallery!!

  21. gering
    gering ·

    Absolutely amazing.

  22. paramir
    paramir ·

    wonderful selection.

  23. asaieva
    asaieva ·

    Beautiful selection. I enjoyed every minute of that :)

  24. kamalfaiz91
    kamalfaiz91 ·

    speechless when look through the pictures. awesome man!

  25. eatclicklove
    eatclicklove ·

    very cool

  26. b0rn2b1ush
    b0rn2b1ush ·

    great stuff!

  27. ali55
    ali55 ·

    awesome collection :) Thank you for selecting one of mine :)

  28. nock
    nock ·

    amazing! trully amazing!

  29. vicuna
    vicuna ·

    excellent selection!

  30. onegreenfan
    onegreenfan ·

    goes to show how some parts of a person is captured on film. And the amazing light display on film.And how some kind of connection between subject and clicker.

  31. superlighter
    superlighter ·

    great portraits collection and I'm glad to be in with one of my friend Alessandra portraits. cloud.lomography.com/576/384/e3/6797a9270078a635f84af90ad81…

  32. richidearthworm
    richidearthworm ·

    Epic collection meow meow woof

  33. nerobi
    nerobi ·

    <3 the last photo! awesome collection!

  34. riette
    riette ·

    Absolutely amazing. This collection seems to really capture the essence of these beautiful people.

  35. domemerson
    domemerson ·

    Amazing portrait gallery. I just loved all of them

  36. albon13
    albon13 ·

    AMAZING

  37. albon13
    albon13 ·

    AMAZING

  38. hannahbryant_
    hannahbryant_ ·

    Beautiful selection of images.

  39. galvao
    galvao ·

    Here's my first ever portrait. This guy is all about positive vibes. Was taken during a surf contest.
    www.lomography.com/homes/galvao/photos/12428614

  40. paperplanepilot
    paperplanepilot ·

    <3

  41. lageos
    lageos ·

    Love this article! :-)

  42. sage495
    sage495 ·

    I took this of my mom one day, and I think it embodies the word portrait
    www.lomography.com/homes/sage495/albums/1656470-diana-f-plu…

  43. renenob
    renenob ·

    18, 36, 81 are my faves!

  44. blormore
    blormore ·

    Great selections!

  45. eva_eva
    eva_eva ·

    awesome portraits! :D

  46. nock
    nock ·

    god put a smile uppon your face from coldplay is a great song to hear while you look at this portraits :)

  47. recurving
    recurving ·

    @maxpinckers interesting point! the description above is just my take on this subject. to me the relationship between photographer and photographed is not that important (because half the time how should i find out just by looking at the photo), i care more about if i think the photo itself tells me something about the person. but as said: this is just my opinion. how do others feel about this?

  48. bigphilly808
    bigphilly808 ·

    great article...great photos & a great song to tie it all together!!

  49. fahlavy
    fahlavy ·

    awesome collection. =) awesome article., =)

  50. stinklecheeks
    stinklecheeks ·

    I like the one where the lens cap is covering the girl's nip!! It's funny.

  51. eightmiles
    eightmiles ·

    wow!!!!!!!!!!how i wish i could own 1 now...nice photo...cheerz all

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