"New Yorker" Portrait Photos and the Problem of the Pose

Zora J. Murff, "Clarissa Glenn and Ben Baker"

I like portraits that look me straight in the eye. They seem more natural. They confront the problem of the pose (what Michael Fried, in his Why Photography Matters as Art as Never Before, calls its “inherent theatricality”) head-on. Lately, New Yorker photography has favored averted eyes. Portrait subjects look down; they look away; they don’t look at the camera. For example: 

Krista Schlueter’s “David Hockney” (from Françoise Mouly’s “Cover Story: David Hockney’s ‘The Road,’ ” newyorker.com, April 16, 2018)

 

Anne Golaz’s “Poul Andrias Ziska” (from the newyorker.com version of Rebecca Mead’s “Meal Ticket,” June 18, 2018)

Gillian Laub’s “Alex Katz” (from Calvin Tomkins’s “Painterly Virtues,” August 27, 2018)

Pari Dukovic’s “Martin Amis” (from Thomas Mallon’s “House Style,” February 5, 2018)

Jamie Campbell’s “Sheila Heti” (from Alexandra Schwartz’s “To Have and to Do,” May 7, 2018)

Ilona Szwarc’s “Bo Burnham” (from Michael Schulman’s “The Awkward Age,” July 2, 2018)

Irina Rozovsky’s “Courtney Barnett,” (from Amanda Petrusich’s “Wry Wonder,” May 21, 2018)

These are all gorgeous portraits. But, to me, there’s an element of fiction in them: the subject knows he or she is being photographed, yet pretends otherwise. I prefer the classic pose in which the subject looks directly at the camera. Here are five of my all-time favorites:

1. Davide Monteleone’s "Su Xiaolan" (from “Portfolio: A New Silk Road,” January 8, 2018)

2. Benjamin Lowy’s “Latham Smith” (from Burkhard Bilger’s “Towheads,” April 19, 2010)

3. Nadine Ijewere’s "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye" (from Zadie Smith’s “A Bird of Few Words,” June 19, 2017)

4. Dan Winters’ "Pardis Sabeti and Stephen Gire" (from Richard Preston’s “The Ebola Wars,” October 27, 2014)

5. Thomas Prior’s "Irad and Jose Ortiz” (from John Seabrook’s “Top Jocks,” December 4, 2017)

Credit: The above photo by Zora J. Murff is from Jennifer Gonnerman's "Framed" (The New Yorker, May 28, 2018).