Perhaps the sharp decline in magazine advertising pages is to thank for 2009’s wealth of lush photo portfolios, some of which dominated entire issues. The trend made for steep competition in this year’s National Magazine Awards, with finalists in the photo portfolio category ranging from an unprecedented shoot at the United Nations to a transatlantic art/fashion mashup in which models displayed the latest looks amidst Picassos and Rodins. We went behind the lens to focus on the five finalists and take a closer look at their chances for an Ellie.
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Slideshow: Ellies 2010 Photo Portfolio Nominees
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Jason Bell
Nominated work: “Out 100: The Class of 2009,” in the December 2009/January 2010 issue of Out
In their own words: “With a great deal of energy! Once I heard that the theme was to be ‘school days,’ I concentrated on getting a mix into the pictures not only of humor, but also nostalgia and intimacy,” Bell tells us. “I liked the fact that the theme is a universal one as well as referencing a time in most people’s lives when they explore and assert their sexuality.” He had eight weeks to shoot 100 people in four cities. “Sixty-five pages in a magazine is a lot, and maintaining visual interest over those 65 pages requires a constant shift in pace and approach — not so great a shift as to abandon the theme but enough to keep the viewer wanting to see more,” says Bell. “Even though there was a huge logistical pressure, my main concern was never to say that a picture was just ‘good enough.’ Each picture had to stand up on its own, not just as a member of the portfolio.”
Marcus Bleasdale
Nominated work: “Exquisite Circus,” in the August 24, 2009 issue of New York
Why it works: It’s not easy to get a fresh perspective on the finely tuned fashion machine as it revs up for the biannual women’s ready-to-wear collections, but New York got just that from Marcus Bleasdale. The veteran photojournalist, who has spent nearly a decade covering the brutal conflict within the borders of the Democratic Republic of Congo, had never heard of Marc Jacobs when he accepted the assignment to shoot the fall 2009 shows. Guided only by his decisions and trained eye for human drama, Bleasdale focused not on the clothes but on capturing the fashion world from all angles. Images from the ephemeral catwalk spectacles and backstage beautifying are joined by moody portraits that highlight the isolation and loneliness inherent in the global fashion cycle.
In their own words: Bleasdale was on assignment in Congo when he got the call from Jody Quon, photography director at New York magazine, about shooting behind-the-scenes at the fall 2009 collections. “I initially thought I could not do it, as I had never worked in fashion before, but she insisted that was exactly what she wanted,” he tells us of how he suddenly found himself backstage or in prime position on the riser at every major show of the season. “I must admit initially I had a difficult time adjusting, but by the end of New York and the beginning of Milan, I had started to understand and feel my way. Also, I was as much expressing my own mood in the images as I was expressing the place and the fashion world at that time,” says Bleasdale. “When I arrived in Paris it all exploded in terms of the experience, and it became in my eyes a very poetic, beautiful, theatrical, extravagant experience. I loved it!”
Platon
Nominated work: “Portraits of Power,” in the December 7, 2009 issue of The New Yorker
Why it works: In early 2009, Platon happened on Henry Kissinger being interviewed on Charlie Rose. The veteran statesman was explaining how the contemporary political landscape makes it impossible for a country to solve even internal problems in isolation. Addressing international issues, he said, requires special relationships between world leaders. That gave Platon, a staff photographer at The New Yorker, an idea. He proposed an ambitious portfolio of world leaders to editor-in-chief David Remnick, and they decided on the United Nations as the ideal setting. Six months of intense negotiations later, Platon was at the UN constructing (under extremely close supervision) a small portrait studio beside the podium where each world leader would deliver his or her address to the 2009 General Assembly. But it’s not the historic and unprecedented access that distinguishes the 110 resulting portraits, taken over five long days. What makes this portfolio so entrancing is the extraordinarily personal quality that Platon was able to capture in his subjects amidst the cacophony of the conference proceedings, suspicious security teams, and idling entourages. One look at the photos, to which The New Yorker devoted a sizable chunk of its December 7 issue, is enough to convince us that Platon is the odds-on favorite to win this category for the second consecutive year.
In their own words: “I wanted to show a new collective personality, as if all these leaders were now on one team, highlighting the difficult challenges and strained tensions, as well as the new optimism and goodwill, generated by Obama’s election,” Platon told us. “The portraits sit together as individual and intimate character studies. I wanted to show what it was really like to meet these people ‘up close and personal.’ Collectively however, the portraits give us a communal spirit of the contemporary global, political power structure.” The key was negotiating scheduling and access. “It was certainly the most relentless suspension of physical and psychological tension I have ever experienced in my life. Each subject arrived with a massive entourage of Cabinet Ministers, delegates, political advisors, and Secret Service Agents. To negotiate a portrait sitting was often as challenging as the portrait itself.”
Martin Schoeller
Nominated work: Portfolio accompanying “The Hadza” by Michael Finkel in the December 2009 issue of National Geographic
Why it works: How do you capture the essence of an isolated group of people best known for what they don’t do (grow food, raise livestock, use calendars, engage in warfare)? That was the challenge confronted by Martin Schoeller as he set out to photograph the Hadza, an ethnic group in central Tanzania that live as hunter-gatherers. He approached the National Geographic assignment with a combination of stunning close-up portraits of individual Hadza and images of their daily life: searching for game, tracking a bloody warthog, foraging for berries, celebrating in a ritual dance. Schoeller’s clear, assured compositions gain dimension when contrasted with the clouds of dust or flashes of sunlight that give the portfolio the shifting dawn-to-dusk feel of a “day in the life” of a vanishing people.
In their own words: “What the Hadza appear to offer — and why they are of great interest to anthropologists — is a glimpse of what life may have been like before the birth of agriculture 10,000 years ago,” writes Michael Finkel in the feature story that Schoeller’s photos accompany. “The Hadza may hold on to their language; they may demonstrate their abilities to tourists. But it’s only a matter of time before there are no more traditional Hadza scrambling in the hills with their bows and arrows, stalking baboons.”
Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin
Nominated work: “Art and Commerce” in the October 2009 issue of W
Why it works: Who better than Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin to photograph the latest luxe fall looks in and around leading museums and galleries in Paris and New York? The established Dutch duo has long straddled the increasingly blurry worlds of fine art and fashion photography, and in this W portfolio, they combine art and commerce to explosive effects. In a Paris gallery, a Lanvin-clad lady confronts a giant Lalanne gorilla sculpture, while at New York’s PaceWildenstein, a Chuck Close portrait of a grinning Bill Clinton competes for the spotlight with an emerald-hued Valentino ensemble. Van Lamsweerde and Matadin take particular delight in games of scale, whether juxtaposing the size of the fashionable leading lady and her diminutive mate or composing their shots to make the art and architecture precisely — and often alarmingly — life-sized.
In their own words: “There is a love-hate relationship between art and fashion, but I personally think the fashion world is much more honest than the art world because it’s very clear the fashion world is about money,” van Lamsweerde said in a 2005 interview with i-D magazine. “Whereas it’s exactly the same in the art world, but they don’t like to talk about it.”
Stephanie Murg is co-editor of UnBeige.
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