What's "Real" and what's merely "posed"?

Common questions, for a portraitist ... what is "Real" as opposed to only "posed"? Or put another way, True against Fake, perhaps. If an artist poses someone, is "Truth" lost? Compared to if the artist just ... well, sort of found that someone there, I suppose? I have heard and read any number of intellectual arguments on this subject over the years. You might guess my predilections, but bear with me anyway!

Take a good-sized family, for instance. How do you get say, ten people from 2 to 50+ in age in a space so that a camera can capture all of them, sharply, and with their faces visible without at least a modicum of posing? Take this family specifically, photographed on the Oregon beaches we love to visit.

Does this look "fake"? Is there something basically "untruthful" about it? Is it "wrong"? Are these people only a poor representatin of the photographer's limited imagination? I haven't had a single reaction to this image expressing the above comments or feelings. And yet, within the context of the arguments mentioned in the first paragraph, they certainly ... from one point of view ... must be the case. For most certainly, I posed them ... at least, to begin with. And gave them a few rules ... especially, limits as to what the adults could tell or request of the little ones. They were also told they were allowed to have fun.

They ... to themselves ... are thoroughly "True" to their normal selves in this image. The aunt and niece teasing and wrestling, the couple close to each other and laughing with the rest of the family, the dad enjoying the little ones discovering this brave new world, and the grandma in-between her kids and grandkids. To this family, this is their reality, as they see themselves.

Okay, how about trying a little more "formal" posing situation, a very formal situation in fact, the artists studio? Here are Kevin Skiles and Jackie Dickey, married these many years, companion artists in song and opera, parents, best friends, peers.

Well, it certainly is a situation set-up in a studio, totally created by the photographer, me. I put her on the stool, and him behind with his arms around, and let them be a couple minutes. We talked. They enjoyed each other's presence. And then, I captured this.

They both feel this image embodies the soul and the essence of their relationship. She is his rock, all strength and beauty, and he is her surrounding, all faith and hope.

Are these images both "Posed"? Yes, within limits ... and because of that posing, they are truth. That is what the artist is for, why the artist is necessary. We see the way to truth through the tools of our various media. That's what an artist does. We make choices in order to present the truth we feel in a way that can be seen. And "push-posh" to the question of real or fake!