Results tagged “portraits” from :: ( CRIT ) :: DESIGN BLOG ::

Hillman Curtis started his talk, organized by AIGA/NY, by a simple quote from CK Williams, an American poet: “Fall in love with a master”.

That master for Curtis has been Richard Avedon, an American photographer, who was distinguished by capturing minimalist portraits in front of a sheer background that reveal its subjects’ character and soul. Curtis talked in great detail about his love of portraits saying, “Portraits are cornerstone to how I work.”


During his talk he shared several films, among them were Artist Series on Lawrence Weiner, Stefan Sagmeister, and the work he did for SVA.

I think what’s extraordinary and brilliant about Curtis’ work the way he weaves a narrative within an image. For an episode of Design Matters, he filmed Lawrence Weiner being interviewed by Debbie Millman. Curtis first drew the viewer’s attention to the shoes that Weiner was wearing. He observed that not only were they ‘total badass’ on a heel, but they also had been slightly torn, indicating that Weiner wore them daily.



Later, he prefaced the Sagmeister film by saying it’s important to be informed by the image and listen to what the image has to tell you. He quoted Chuck Close, “You should never try to capture emotion. It’s always there”.



Of all the tidbits shared during the talk, my favorite were his words on capturing narrative: “Listen to what the image has to tell you”, and do “anything to avoid a talking head”.