People in Place: Environmental Portraits from the Mira Godard Study Centre

Simply defined, an environmental portrait is an
image of a person in a
place. How this subject interacts with this place,
whether it be a
home, workplace or public space, and how the
photographer interacts with both the place and the
sitter, are elements that charge this definition and
define the experience for us as viewers.

One of the larger issues is the relative truthfulness
of the
environmental portrait. Is the subject’s awareness
of being photographed central to the photograph’s
truthfulness, and are candid portraits inherently
more authentic than posed ones? Does having the
photographer, environment, or sitter dominate in
the creation of the photograph add to or detract
from the perceived truth of the image? What is the
viewer’s role and contribution to the understanding
of an environmental portrait? The twenty-five
photographs in this exhibition encourage the
exploration of these questions.

Curated by students in the 'Curation and Preservation' course, School of Image Arts.