Peter B by wysiwig
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No AI - This artwork was created entirely by hand or with traditional digital tools.
Description
This is a picture of another of my college roommates Peter. It was shot with high-key, film noire lighting. When you are a penniless student this means a bare light bulb positioned to one side of the subject. Peter was a film major. I googled his name a few years ago and found over four hundred references to him. He had filmed a documentary on the Yanomamo Indians of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest. He had then gone on to become a professor of anthropology at our old alma mater California State University at San Francisco. Prior to posting this I googled him again. He is now the Director of the Program in Visual Anthropology and has 6,640 references. I once had two references on the Internet. I do not recommend googling old roommates unless you possess a high degree of self-esteem. There is one thing that gives me some comfort. All that beautiful black curly hair? It’s gone.

Comments (17)
wonderful portrait!
SUPERB portrait, Mark! Good for him, but personally I'm glad not to have a reputuation to live up too, it would be so stressful. I won't even join facebook, I have a horror of something to do with being searched for..I'm not sure what or why exactly.
Excellent work! Well Done!
Excellent shot and wonderful story!
Some faces just have a lot of character. Capturing that character is truly a form of art.
comes with age the surprises can see wonderful capture and do have a wonderful weekend warm hugs, Linda
STUNNING PORTRAIT, AND A GREAT b/w!!!!!
Oh how funny to read your descrption.. Great photo of your roommate.
Your inexpensive lighting worked wonderfully well! Superb grittiness and dark atmosphere! Love the strong contrast on the face and the softer shadows in the background! Excellent image!
have you email him? Just to see. i google my name one time and there was a man in Scotland with the same name and they had a email on the page so I did email him but he never email me back. bet your old room mate will email you back.
With the shade pleases me greatly! And which is become from it? Titles do not state everything. Main thing he remained “human”? If yes - respect!!
Wonderful portrait!
This is an excellent portrait. Whatever on-the-cheap tools you used, the result is remarkable. Wonderful image!
Wonderful lighting. I bet you couldn't have achieved any better with a big expensive light setup. Excellent work and your story as always, interesting. I agree with JuliSonne too.
This is a superb portrait! I've found that "College Student Budgets" work exceptionally well when you're doing art of any sort; you get a kind of honest rawness that cannot be captured in a studio or with lots of expensive toys...you can come close, but nothing beats bare light bulbs in a probably-cramped apartment. Something of that ambiance always infuses the work done in such a place, and as for this portrait, it's quite compelling and quite lively and full of character; this is the kind of portrait work I like--it's deliciously free of frills and distractions and the face in focus could easily belong to a character in a brooding, complex, and compelling story--or he could just be a guy in a tee shirt, destined to shoot a film concerning the Amazon's "Fierce" Yanamamo people: they seem to be a favorite among anthropologists, by the way...but I digress. This is a fantastic photograph. (As for an old roommate, have you tried to get back in touch with him?)
Beautiful portrait ! Interesting life of your companion!
Well, I use the light over my stove for some shots, so whatever works!! This is a great foto and an even better story and the fact those curls are gone makes it even better!!