In the early 1900's, photography conveyed a sincere and innocent atmosphere for the subjects. Smiling with dramatic "say cheese" faces were something unheard of. With the evolution of portable cameras during the pass 100 years, an era of candid casualness has drowned out the sensitive tenderness early photography greatly showcased. Early motion pictures were influenced by theater, and early television presentations were inspired by radio presentations. In the same way early portrait photography was strongly influenced by the long art history of portraiture painting. Here is Edwardian era transformation portrait illustration art of Emma. Most of my retro portrait transformations are inspired by decades from the 1920"a to the 60's. However Inspiration is everywhere and yearned to create something a little different. I rarely do transformational art on children but was fascinated by studio portrait photography from this particular era. Notable trademarks were big poofy swirly "Gibson girl" hair curls, lots of flowers with a very shallow depth of field (center of face sharply focused with hair blurring out of focus, dark backdrops, transitional fades, and circular frames. Very minimal wash of color due to hand tinting black and white images. My challenge was to capture that same 1900's spirit in an illustration art format and still have it resemble my client's daughter. Tell me what you think. -Santiago.
