What is portrait?
The very notion of the portrait, be it a painting or a photograph, promises the viewer a glimpse to someone´s persona, maybe soul even. A succesful portrait is often considered to be able to compress something essential about it´s subject into a single image. It is not a surprise that photography has been believed to be able to steal the soul.
This is part of text written by Hannu Karjalainen, one of photographers in the Helsinki School.
