Gordon Parks argued that portrait photographers should leave the controlled studio and photograph people where they actually live and work. That sounds simple, but it changes what a portrait can contain. A room, workplace, gesture or background stops being decoration and becomes information about the person. Perhaps a face alone rarely tells us enough. Context can be part of the portrait rather than something to remove from it.
https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/press/exhibition/2024/5842/5842-walltext.pdf
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