Why Portraits Matter
I photographed my father in 2005.
At the time, I had no idea how important those photographs would become.
I was still finding my way as a photographer.
He sat for me willingly, without question.
Months later, he became ill.
And then he was gone.
The photographs are not perfect.
But they are his.
They hold the way he stood.
The way he looked at me.
The way he occupied a room.
Things memory slowly struggles to keep.
Growing up, my relationship with my father was not always simple.
Like most relationships that matter, it carried both love and complexity.
After he died, I listened to the stories people told about him.
Through their memories, I began to understand parts of him I had never fully seen.
I realised that no life can be reduced to a single story.
And no photograph is ever only about what someone looked like.
The value of a photograph rarely reveals itself on the day it is made.
It comes later.
When a child searches for a photograph of a parent.
When a family opens an album that has not been looked at for years.
When someone you love is no longer standing beside you.
The photograph has not changed.
But its value has.
That is why portraits matter.
Not because they are perfect.
Not because they flatter.
Not because they win awards or gather praise.
They matter because they become part of what remains.
They remind us who was here.
Who was loved.
Who shaped our lives.
And sometimes, they become the closest thing we have to holding a moment again.
We make the photograph today.
We cannot know what it will mean tomorrow.
Michael Corke, photographed in 2005.
JOHANNESBURG PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER
One Moment. One Portrait. Forever
© 2005–2026 Bridget Corke Photography
Blairgowrie · Johannesburg · South Africa
International Master's in Portrait Photography
One of only two in Africa.