Portrait a la Diane Arbus for 52Frames

For this week for 52Frames, we were supposed to copy the style of a famous photographer.

"Coffee and a Cigarette"This black and white portrait was inspired by those of Richard Avedon, but since I did not have the studio conditions he would use, it's much more like the portraits taken by Diane Arbus. She photographed interesting looking people in their natural settings. This attractive woman agreed to pose during her break when I told her that I, davka, wanted her to be smoking.

I planned the shot pretty well, the most important part being the model. She had just the look I wanted. Both Arbus and Avedon shot very interesting looking people, but the big difference was in the settings. You can see the Rami Levy supermarket stuff in the background.  From the photos I've saen, Avedon prefered the studio sanitized in a way, but Arbus photographed her subjects in their home turf. This week I'm very satisfied with my photo. I know it's not as sharp as those professionals could do, but I have a simple, inexpensive camera.

The photograph was originally shot in color, and afterwards I removed the color so it would be black and white.