Portrait of President Nixon

William Collin's Artist Statement

For my photo project I wanted to recreate the portrait of a historical figure. My interest in American history, lead me to the portraits of our presidents. Keeping within the parameters of the assignment and also keeping in mind the limited amount of tools I had at my disposal to recreate one of these portrait would prove to be a very challenging task. I looked at the most obvious details in the choosing of my portrait the lighting, the cloths they were wearing, what setting are they in, and I needed to think about whether I could find a physical match between a president and a person I know. This directed me to the portrait of President Nixon by Norman Rockwell. His portrait is made up of only a few components there is the plain background, the chair he is leaning against and him. Also with further analysis of the portrait I saw a slight, resemblance between my roommate Justin and the president. Though they are far from being an exact match I saw that the general outline of Justin’s face were close enough to that of Nixon’s. All I had to do to create the match was get him to be a good friend, put on his suit and pose in a way that is similar to the portrait. The ultimate challenge that I had was creating the proper light effects to give the portrait justice. I needed to darken my apartment, and also need to lighten up my roommate Justin. By turning off certain lights next to my backdrop and using a flash I feel like I was able to give the portrait justice. In the end I enjoyed the project because of I was able to include my interest in history and I was forced to step outside my comfort zone in order to fulfill the requirements of the project.