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

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crazy_little_red_riding_hood, guyabano, b2377, buckshot, tasjarhodes, phoenix1206, nural, somapic, stacy_mcpommes, trash-gordon-from-outer-space, jp-oracion, eroenelvento, pregrino_george, cashew, whitley, imaguoy, shrista, spoeker, boredbone, anondo, clatter808, alicemichele, mephisto19, micahisamansname, fahlavy, mishika, mrmaart, stouf, i_am_ni, aaronmwilson1989, laiba, xongaxin, bigphilly808, aniellec, hailkingstewie, gilliangerrard, caronicolas, chaotic4life, eva_eva, blormore, alyssaphotographsyou, lageos, coolsigg, evelyna, paperplanepilot, galvao, lavisionmd, hoseun, jacet, itsdebraanne, brixwillbeshat, domemerson, plasticpopsicle, carousel-fish, gladys, reneg88, clickiemcpete, flyaway, tonantzin, slivinskaja_, tomi11, vinunez, odjur, liluxxx, bravopires, whalethehumans, orpheuswasawoman, onegreenfan, tjbeard8985, vicuna, pussylove, shita, monkeyalien, nock, lccosta, ihave2pillows, monamarques, enjoylife, nicolas_noir, terryjackson, msnicks, elvismartinezsmith, kamalfaiz91, pikc, asaieva, lawypop, saeledbetts, domyblue, dirklancer, diversa, paramir, kobkob, quaisoir, squamy, ariannapaloma, aprilia, gelibee, parki, angela_silva, odax, natalieerachel, adi_totp, 1minute1second, anarollemberg, nuhdos, kamiraze, grazie, manneken, lakandula, pushkar, abenda, daforl, u-t-e, yarah, reindeerarmies, linusbm, tattso, juuldeliette, sweetyyydreams, o7a7k7, metzgor, jonalon & lighttomysoul and 87 more lovely people. Show less, please.

52 Comments

lighttomysoul · 2011-04-20 10:18
excellent selection. some of these are pure magic.
eremigi · 2011-04-20 10:28
Agreed: absolutely outstanding selection. And ore or two are amazing.
kernow_and_cambria · 2011-04-20 10:31
Cool selection! Heres my own favourite www.lomography.com/homes/kernow_and_cambria/albums/1163747-…
tattso · 2011-04-20 10:36
fantastic!
adambradc · 2011-04-20 10:40
Amazing photos a split second in time says so very much - well done on a great collection
arabrab · 2011-04-20 11:00
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…
u-t-e · 2011-04-20 11:04
Wow! A great selection! And I love that song, a beautiful combination: Lovely music and extraordinary portraits!
Thanks!
whitemikerocks · 2011-04-20 11:16
I feel like i know these people! great portraits! great song!
disdis · 2011-04-20 11:28
nice portrait gallery!
pulex · 2011-04-20 11:29
great selection....some of them are pretty stunning...and sometimes i felt like they are looking at me...
pushkar · 2011-04-20 12:16
awesome work
discodrew · 2011-04-20 13:10
Here's my favorite. he he :-) www.lomography.com/homes/discodrew/albums/1693009-holga-wed…
dabai · 2011-04-20 15:04
some of the portraits are really awesome. great selection!
mattcharnock · 2011-04-20 15:04
wow...wow....and wow
dirklancer · 2011-04-20 15:13
here's a shameless plug of my favorite: www.lomography.com/homes/dirklancer/photos/11683301
recurving · 2011-04-20 15:24
It's not shameless if the photo's great! :) Like it!
grazie · 2011-04-20 17:03
amazing selection and i love them all! a personal favorite portrait lately would be www.lomography.com/homes/grazie/albums/1685663-cara/photos/…
angela_silva · 2011-04-20 22:10
amazzzzing!
jcgepte · 2011-04-21 01:12
excellent! my fave feature so far. =)
ariannapaloma · 2011-04-21 12:51
it's so hard to make a real good portrait! this selection is great!
squamy · 2011-04-21 13:03
Such an amazing gallery!!
gering · 2011-04-21 13:14
Absolutely amazing.
paramir · 2011-04-21 14:56
wonderful selection.
asaieva · 2011-04-21 17:04
Beautiful selection. I enjoyed every minute of that :)
kamalfaiz91 · 2011-04-21 17:55
speechless when look through the pictures. awesome man!
eatclicklove · 2011-04-21 21:03
very cool
b0rn2b1ush · 2011-04-22 00:06
great stuff!
ali55 · 2011-04-22 00:21
awesome collection :) Thank you for selecting one of mine :)
nock · 2011-04-22 02:46
amazing! trully amazing!
vicuna · 2011-04-22 05:20
excellent selection!
onegreenfan · 2011-04-22 07:16
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.
superlighter · 2011-04-22 16:47
great portraits collection and I'm glad to be in with one of my friend Alessandra portraits. cloud.lomography.com/576/384/e3/6797a9270078a635f84af90ad81…
richidearthworm · 2011-04-22 21:18
Epic collection meow meow woof
nerobi · 2011-04-23 14:45
<3 the last photo! awesome collection!
riette · 2011-04-23 19:23
Absolutely amazing. This collection seems to really capture the essence of these beautiful people.
domemerson · 2011-04-23 22:28
Amazing portrait gallery. I just loved all of them
albon13 · 2011-04-24 06:48
AMAZING
albon13 · 2011-04-24 06:48
AMAZING
hannahbryant_ · 2011-04-24 07:34
Beautiful selection of images.
galvao · 2011-04-24 10:52
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
paperplanepilot · 2011-04-24 12:21
<3
lageos · 2011-04-24 15:00
Love this article! :-)
sage495 · 2011-04-24 18:13
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…
renenob · 2011-04-24 23:35
18, 36, 81 are my faves!
blormore · 2011-04-25 02:52
Great selections!
eva_eva · 2011-04-25 03:15
awesome portraits! :D
nock · 2011-04-25 03:55
god put a smile uppon your face from coldplay is a great song to hear while you look at this portraits :)
recurving · 2011-04-25 15:18
@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?
bigphilly808 · 2011-04-25 22:35
great article...great photos & a great song to tie it all together!!
fahlavy · 2011-04-26 12:02
awesome collection. =) awesome article., =)
stinklecheeks · 2011-04-26 20:40
I like the one where the lens cap is covering the girl's nip!! It's funny.
eightmiles · 2011-06-03 15:11
wow!!!!!!!!!!how i wish i could own 1 now...nice photo...cheerz all