On the 5th, 6th and 7th of February EASDAlcoi hosted the Jornades del Retrat organized by the Photography department in which conferences, workshops and activities were held around this photographic genre.
They were started by photographer Mikel Ponce with the talk ‘The Editorial Portrait. From idea to improvisation.’ Ponce has worked for magazines such as Esquire, Forbes or El País Semanal and showed the evolution of his first photos to the present day. He explained the process of preparing the sessions but also how he always ended up improvising in each of them according to who he was taking the photo of and what and how it was wanted to be transmitted.
On the 5th afternoon he demonstrated with a real case of portrait of EASDAlcoi professor and illustrator Jerjes Llopis. The session was based on his creations and personality. For this, it is essential to create a link with the portrayed and to know how to adapt technical elements such as scenery or lighting to each case.
The next day, a photographic outlet was made to pay homage to Richard Avedon’s work on ‘In the American West’. Here the photographer made an extensive journey through the American West through black-and-white portraits of decontextualized characters on white backgrounds. Students moved this idea to different points in the center of Alcoy such as the Plaza de España, the Parterre or the Glorieta. They photographed by analog to the passers-by who accepted the proposal, with the same point of view, framing and reproduction process as Avedon.
On day 7 it was Luana Fischer who spoke about the editorial portrait within the world of Fashion. Her beginnings as a photojournalist have made his work characterized to maintain the natural essence and truth of each person within the imposed aesthetics. It doesn’t force the characters. She also taught much of her personal work.
