A Tale of Two Portraits
The unconscious mind works in mysterious ways.
It didn’t dawn on me until I had finished working on these two portraits and test-printed them numerous times how similar — and how different — they are.
They make a great pair, which my unconscious mind recognized long before I did!
The Similarities
Both these portraits were made in May, my favorite month to photograph maiko and geiko, both for the mild spring weather and the wisteria hair ornaments (fuji kanzashi in Japanese) that maiko wear in May.
May is also my favorite month for doing natural-light portraits like these two. The quality of light in Kyoto is particularly beautiful in the late afternoons in May, before the rainy and cloudy days of June.
Both Toshikana (left) and Mamefuji (right) are wearing mizu iro kimono. Mizu iro means “water color” in English, and it refers to a light blue color. Maiko often wear mizu iro kimono in May.
If you know your color wheel, you know that blue and purple are right next to each other (making them analogous colors in the lingo of color theory). This means that they naturally harmonize. Wisteria and light blue kimono will always look good together.
The composition of the portraits are mirror images of each other, too. Toshikana’s right shoulder is slightly forward, and Mamefuji’s left one is. I usually frame my head-and-shoulder portraits like these two, from just above their heads to just below their collar.
The Differences
I find the differences in these two portraits to be more interesting than the similarities.
First, although both Toshikana and Mamefuji have fuji kanzashi, Mamefuji’s are much longer and more elaborate. This marks her as a junior, and she had been a maiko for two and a half years at this point.
The portrait of Toshikana was made half a year before Mamefuji even became a maiko, and Toshikana was already a senior maiko then.
Second, these are both natural-light portraits, but they couldn’t have been more different.
Toshikana’s portrait was made on the street in Miyagawa-cho, not too far from her okiya. She is facing east, which means the afternoon sun is behind her and to her right, which accounts for the subtle highlight on the right side of her black hair, which helps separate her from the background. This was the early afternoon, so the sun was still moving west and relatively high in the sky. It wasn’t behind her yet.
The background was key to me in this portrait. For one thing, there aren’t many places in any of the geisha districts where you can find enough trees to fill up the background like this. It’s a rare sight. For another, green is next to blue on the opposite side of the color wheel from purple, making green, blue, and purple analogous colors. The background, kimono, and kanzashi all complemented each other.
Toshikana and I had to go up and down the street to find the perfect spot. In some places, light was streaming through the trees, making the background too bright. In other places, there were gaps in the leaves, and we could see the sun reflecting off the bright white cars on the road behind.
Toshikana’s head is blocking a gap in the trees. If she moved a little to her left or right, the mood would have been ruined.
Even though this is an outdoor portrait, Toshikana is not being directly lit by the sun. The sunlight is bouncing off a light-colored building in front of Toshikana and behind me, which accounts for the warm light on her face and collar. Toshikana is also holding a small white reflector just below the frame, which helps to bounce light back onto her face and add a little more luminous glow to her.
The portrait of Mamefuji was made in the genkan (entranceway) of an ochaya in Gion Kobu. Like Toshikana, Mamefuji is being lit by the sun, but indirectly. The bright afternoon sun is bouncing off the very reflective silver cobblestones of the street in front of the tea house, giving the sunlight a crisper and bluer feel than the warmer and softer light falling on Toshikana. It’s still beautiful light — just a very different feel.
Because the sunlight was so bright, the left side of Mamefuji’s face (and her hair ornaments) was falling into deep shadow, almost completely black. That’s why I added a small LED light as a rim light behind her and to the left. This light lowers the contrast and leaves that nice glow on her left cheek, neck, and shoulder.
The portrait would have a very different mood without the rim light. Since the entranceway is pretty small, I’m backed into the corner, as far away from Mamefuji as I could get, not very far. And Mamefuji had to move a little forward so the light could fit behind her.
The Eyes
To me, the biggest difference in these portraits is in the eyes.
Toshikana is looking down, giving the portrait a more demure and mysterious feel.
When I look at this portrait, I just say to myself, “That’s Toshikana.” I believe I have captured an aspect of her personality here. This pose suits her, or at least my artistic vision of her.
It’s not because Toshikana doesn’t have beautiful eyes. She does. And in many of the portraits I made that day, she’s looking right at me, and they are just as eye-catching (pun intended) as this one.
I only had Toshikana look down because I noticed her squinting. The light reflecting off the building was pretty bright, and I could tell it was hurting her eyes (even though she never said anything). I told her to look down as a way for her to rest her eyes.
When I looked at all the images with the trees in the background, I liked the ones of her looking down the most even though it was just a technique to give her a moment or two of respite. They just felt right.
I don’t think I’ve ever made a portrait of Mamefuji where I asked her to look down. Mamefuji’s eyes are so crucial when it comes to expressing her personality that I think a portrait without seeing them would be completely lifeless. I couldn’t do it.
When I look at this portrait, I also think to myself, “That’s Mamefuji.” Mamefuji, like Toshikana, like me, like all of us — has a more public persona and a more private one. This is the Mamefuji I know, and have known for ten years now.
Which One?
If you asked me which of these portraits I like better, I couldn’t tell you. I am proud of them both. I think the lighting and posing in each help to reveal something about the personality of the person being portrayed.
And that’s all I can ask for!
This will be my last post of 2023, so I wish all of you a happy holiday season, a peaceful end to 2023, and a wonderful start to 2024. I’ll see you on Sunday, January 7, 2024. If I don’t change plans between now and then, you will see photos of me in that post, not maiko or geiko. Yikes!