The working portrait: communicating more than a likeness.

Portraits are among the most commonly used pictures in organizational publications. Most of them are sterile mug shots that fail as communication because they are intended merely to describe the appearance of their subjects. Galleries of employee and managerial mug shots are usually published to please the subjects, not to inform the readers.

Effective portraiture, on the other hand, interprets the subjects, telling us who these people are, not just showing us what they may look like.

I call them "working portraits," because they relate people to their tasks and skills, express some aspect of their personalities and can define them in the context of their vocations. They can also leave room for the viewers' own imaginations to work.

Here are four diverse examples of working portraits. In my recent travels, I encountered a painter, a weaver, a wagon driver and a street performer. I was able to make portraits relating these people to their work, yet go beyond just showing what they do. Instead, I've tried to make pictures that say who they are.

My first example is the most common approach to a working portrait. I conceived this black and white image of the Santa Fe, N.M., artist Amado Pena as a character study. The softly focused paintbrushes in the foreground offer context, telling us what he does. I emphasize his self-confidence and stature by taking a low vantage point--Pena's art is highly regarded in the American Southwest. The natural light in his studio, and this black and white photograph, abstract half of his face, suggesting two sides to his personality--the known and the unknown. Pena looks away from the camera he knows am there, but ignores me as he thoughtfully listens to questions that others ask him. I hope my viewers will come away with more than only a likeness of him. I want them to have an idea of who Amado Pena is.

My second working portrait is of a weaver in Florianopolis, Brazil. Unlike the close-up Pena portrait, I shoot this weaver from a distance, surrounded by her tools and products. Color is important to this picture because it helps bring out the beauty and character of her work and offers a context for her enthusiastic response. She also knew that I was photographing her, but her response is aimed at others watching her demonstrate her craft. This is an environmental portrait of a woman in charge. Her complex surroundings do not intimidate her--far from it. Her spontaneity suggests that she is comfortable with what she does and with who she is.

The third example uses abstraction and body language to suggest the self-confidence and pride of an Argentine gaucho wagon driver. Getting down low and shooting up at him as he patiently waits for tourists to clamber aboard, I was able to turn the driver into a virtual silhouette by shooting him against the overcast sky, making this portrait a more symbolic image. I composed this photograph around a series of geometric patterns that carry the eye across the picture. The lines of the wagon railing echo the thrusting angles of his hat, arm and leg. The driver becomes an integral part of the wagon itself, a legacy of the colorful tradition rooted on the Argentine pampas.

I photographed the final example last summer while visiting Russia. A street performer taking a break near Moscow's Red Square was resting on his staff, and I jumped at the opportunity to build a portrait around his bejeweled hands and his colorful costume.

(The incongruity of the contemporary wristwatch juxtaposed against the traditions of ancient Russia was a bonus for me.) This working portrait proves that you don't even have to see the face to take the measure of a person. His facelessness creates an abstraction allowing viewers to use their own imaginations. Everyone will see whatever he wants to see--a perfect fit for this portrait of an entertainer who bases his craft on illusion.

Philip N. Douglis, ABC, directs The Douglis Visual Workshops, now its 33rd year of training communicators in visual literacy. Douglis, an IABC Fellow, is the most widely known consultant on editorial photography for organizations.

He offers comprehensive six-person Communicating with Pictures workshops every May and October in Oak Creek Canyon, near Sedona, Ariz.

For registration information, call +1 602.493.6709, or send an e-mail to [e-mail].

Send photos for possible use in this column to The Douglis Visual Workshops, 2505 E. Carol Avenue, Phoenix, AZ, USA 85028. You can view Douglis's nine-gallery "cyberbook" on expressive travel photography at www.phase.com/pnd1.