What is Portrait Photography? – A Pithy Quote

The other day I was watching a Bowens educational video online, hosted by Joe Brady and Tony Corbell. The video,The Basics of Portrait Lighting,* was kinda interesting, but the thing that stuck with me was something that Tony Corbell said near the beginning. Quoting someone (I think) called Arthur Rainville,** he said;

“A photograph is of someone but a portrait is about someone.”

I’m usually turned right off by pithy quotes, but this one seems to make some sense. Not so much as some kind of touchy-feely notion, but rather as a concrete goal to aim for.

* the link goes to the main video page

** probably this guy (http://www.studiorainville.com/), but I’m not sure as, after entering the site, I didn’t get past the very slow to load flash page that said something like “Not a site for the impatient traveller, rather, a destination to explore and perhaps connect…” or some such. There’s three composited images on the page, no links I can find anywhere and intensely irritating music. It’s still running on another tab and there seems no way past it. Making me reconsider the ‘wisdom’ of the above quote…