Contemporary Portrait

Sitter - Taylor Swift : Singer-songwriter, actress, philanthropist (a person who seeks to promote the welfare of others, especially by the generous donation of money to good causes).


Why was it taken? This image was taken for the single cover to promote her new song 'Love Story'.

Taylor Swift posed on the set of her "Love Story" video shoot.
Photo Credit: Big Machine Records
What are the symbolic references within the portrait? This image denotes Taylor Swift in dress that mirrors/is similar to type of dress worn by Elizabeth before she became queen as her dresses were smaller and more delicate. Also within this image there is a painting in the background which makes this image very different and not at all modern as there are also pillars in the background which connotes that the building she was filming her music video in was very old and possibly fragile. Within this image the way that Taylor Swift is standing as her posture is very straight and up right white gives her more of a dominant and fierce looking which suggests she is powerful.

What does the clothing say about the sitter?
The clothing Taylor is wearing suggests that she is a princess of some king and looks extremely elegant and feminine as the dress is very delicate and shows how slim and delicate Taylor Swift is. 

Within portraits these days they don't really include symbolic objects as the portraits are 

more about the models/sitters. However they do sometimes wear certain pieces of clothing that suggest how wealthy they are of what things they like. In modern times the clothes worn by the model/sitter say more about them than the objects in the background which shows how times have changed and how the model is the main focus of the image.

In this lesson we learned that there is much more to the images we are looking at as there are symbols everywhere to denote the wealth of the sitter and what they are like as a person which was interesting to see/look at.


References;
CMT: Photos: Taylor Swift’s photos from ‘Love Story’: Taylor Swift in ‘Love Story’ (1 of 6) (2015) Available at: http://www.cmt.com/pictures/taylor-swifts-photos-from-love-story/1594744/3176924/photo.jhtml (Accessed: 10 December 2015).