Het Portret en de Mythe. Inleiding tot de discussie. (Portraiture and Myth. Introduction to a discussion)

Contribution by Dutch photographer Krzyzanowski on the topic of
portraiture. He establishes a 'conflict of interest' between
photographer and model. On the one hand, a commissioned portrait
has to mythologize the model according to the client's wishes,
yet in a 'free situation', the photographer also wishes to
mythologise in his personal manner, so as to reveal the 'reality
of the model's personality' as seen by the photographer. The
essence of this mythologizing is, according to the author, ""to
bring the viewer inescapably more close to the model''. This
article was used as a discussion-paper at a meeting of
Konfrontatie in Amsterdam. A report on this discussion,
including remarks by Dutch portrait-photographers Taco Anema,
Bert Nienhuis and Philip Mechanicus, is published in the same
magazine pp. 50-51. (Dutch)