Huxely, my JRT FTW again today with this sweet shot of him. Why is it so sweet? Because it fits his strange and normally somber personality.

Isn’t that the point of really good portrait photography, to show who this person in front of the lens is and not just record the moment. A moment includes the environment, clothes, hair style, lighting etc. All of those things can give a mood or sense of history but all together it can’t make the portrait.

When an image can convey more than a record of the things in the frame is when it becomes a portrait of an individual. It has been referred to as “soul stealing” and the best photographers can do just that they can disarm the subjects natural defensiveness and get them to translate their soul onto film.

Do you agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments below.