10. Street Portraits - Charles Freger

http://www.charlesfreger.com/

The second photographer who's work I had decided to look at with regards to Street Portraits, was Charles Freger. His portraits are not 'street' portraits per say, they're more environmental portraits, but I find them very useful when it comes to my assignment. 

Born in Bourges in 1975, Fréger went on to study fine art in Rouen in the North of France. His work is a dedication to the poetic and anthropological representation of social groups in various cultures, such as soldiers, rugby players etc. His photographic works provide a unique study of today's youth and it's vast culture. 

Fréger has a very unique, persistent style of photographing, including his viewpoint, colour, lighting and the distance between the subject and the photographer. Even though in all of his shoots the models are in similar clothing and are of a similar age, the unique aspect of each subject becomes very apparent. 

"Charles Fréger's work thus questions the boundaries between individual and collective identity."

Charles Fréger is also the founder of the artistic community Piece of Cake (www.pocproject.com) and of the POC publishing house.

"Charles Fréger is known for his photographic portraits of individual members of social groups who represent and symbolise their collectivity by the clothes they wear and the things they hold, their postures and expressions. The places in which they are pictured are also fundamental; typically they are shown on their own territory, scenes full of significant details not found in any studio backdrop. This approach is already well established in contemporary art, the inclusion of numerous sociological clues places his work within the traditions of Western portraiture."
By Chihiro Minato - Click Here.
Les Homes Vert 1
Les Hommes Verts 5

Above are two photographs from Charles Fréger's series 'Les homes verts, 2002-2003'. The series consisted of various portraits of public cleaners. This is one of very many series' by Charles Fréger which focused on one specific working group. He varies in his style, but for each individual they are all photographed in the same way. So there's one full length portrait of each one, and one face portrait. The face portraits are very similar to the portraits I should be capturing in my street portrait assignment, as in the fill of the frame. 
Fréger's portraits are more environmental than street, but are still very useful to look at. He does photograph a great range of various cultures, and going through his website your eyes are opened to the variation.

Above is a print screen from Fréger's website showing 'Les homes verts, 2002-2003' series. As is mentioned earlier, all of the subjects are photographed in the same way, but their individual differences stand out. This is what we should achieve in our street portraits.

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