Portraits

Portraits is a collaborative effort to study the individuality and expressiveness of the human face. Displayed together as one installation, the faces stand out while also working together as a collective whole. I started this project with the desire to capture small moments of expression — a lifted brow, a jutted chin — and began experimenting with my friends, and other art students. People do funny things with their faces when they think no one is watching, and I wanted to try to create moments like that in front of the camera, to formalize in black and white the little quirks that people do without realizing. From these first few encounters, another important aspect to the project became apparent: the collaboration between photographer and subject in portraiture. I took these photographs with a 4x5 camera, which can be intimidating so close to the face. The process of talking to the person I was photographing was paramount; I explained what I was doing with the camera, what I was looking for in the photographs, and asked them about themselves to make them comfortable. Through this process I was able to observe their faces through the viewfinder, and find those little moments in the middle of conversation. It was an intimate experience, which is reflected in the framing of the photographs — in a few, the viewer can see my reflection in the subject’s eyes. To continue the collaboration, the people I photographed have been invited to keep their portraits, preserving the cycle of exchange between photographer and photographed.