things taking their course

"i have founnd that i am merely a matter of things taking their course, like how some birds are swans and others are doves or some flowers are roses while others are lilys."

reflective portraits [continued]

images shot with 4x5 view camera

(top two images)
sierra is a journalism major

when i thought of her the next thought i went to was what journalism ultimately meant?
as with all different type of writing, it meant words.
in a sense words mean a great deal for identity, it means a hunter for an elusive prey.
authors from all times have ultimately used words as a way of describing what had previously been indescribable. i remember many times when i was reading a line of text that just seemed to click with me, like i had always understood what was being said, but had never once heard it put into words, realizing that each time this happened i came a little closer to understanding the identity within myself which would then lead me to understanding man's obsession with putting into words the experiences of every event in their lives, similar to a river that runs down stream to a great ocean going as fast as gravity and time would allow it, but not missing a single rock in its path, making sure to give each pebble the same amount of attention it gave the last. words are man's conscious effort to simplify their experiences into something tangible.

(bottom three images)
clare is a fashion major, there are three images because i am not sure which one to edit out of the diptych. ill decide later.

fashion is a method of clothing yourself in a way that will express your views of the world inside and out, to yourself and everyone around you. in the east (traditionally) the colors of your clothing have religious or spiritual meanings, in the west (traditionally) the styles of your clothing can represent your individuality in some way, and everywhere the types of clothing you wear can represent your social class, your status or any other type of title you may hold in society.
even the ones who say they do not have a style have the no style style, there is a no escaping the confines of what fashion means to our multi-layered effort of understanding the fundamental questions that we have about ourselves.
as soon as we put that thrift store shirt with the vintage text screen printed onto it , buy those designer shoes in the latest mainstream trend, or wear that from start to finish diamond studded necklace in the style of a rosary. we make a statement of our own personal idea of our own personal identity.

"Photography is not about cameras, gadgets and gismos. Photography is about photographers. A camera didn't make a great picture any more than a typewriter wrote a great novel."

- Peter Adams

reflective portraits [continued]

4x5 viewcamera, diffusion and bounce lights from camera left snoot focusing from chest to neck (frontal view)
4x5 view camera overhead smithvicktor diffused to camera right bounce light to model left and snoot focusing on upper back from camera left angled diagonally at model (from the back shot)

(let the ramble begin haha)



the next diptych images in my final series in studio reflective portraits

in this diptych i used my friend evan, who is a theater major @ columbia , photographing what he spends his days perfecting in terms of practicing how to manipulate himself to fit the role of each of the characters he must portray.


the point of these two images is to show how evan "the actor" relates to the common individual in that we all struggle with identity. pretending to be one person from the next depending on the situation unfolding. when are we ever ourselves truly? and not just a reflection of who you think you should be in the presence and eyes of the person you are with. Even when you are alone are you really you? or just the person you think you should be when you are alone

if you ask someone to state their own personal identity to you what would they say?
occupation and interests? or brother,sister, father, mother, daughter, son? or ethnicity? or maybe they will dig deeper into personal attributes and beliefs such as skinny, fat, tall, short, blonde, brunette and everything in between, boring, funny,happy, sad etc.

in my opinion these are all labels our minds creates in an effort to try to make some sense of order of the mess that is everything that involves the vast multi-dimensional and multi-layering of a human mind. like how are simple minds need to put massive cities into grids because the complexities of it all are to impressive to grasp without that organization. realizing that another said very well "no mouth is big enough to say it all" i start to embrace the mess of the overwhelmingly complex nature of true identity thinking that the most you can hope for in a true identification is to sit someone in front of a camera hold silence long enough while cluttering about with your lights and cumbersome equipment until you notice that the model's attention has begun to direct inwardly forgetting that the camera and i were there at all, and at the instant of complete oblivious attention to everything thats going on at that moment around him; snap, cracks the shutter and here i present to the best of my abilities a mugshot for the self, dont contemplate to much, words can only constrict.

Fact and Faith Triptych

These images are about my take on the theme fact and faith, i took a more literal approach showing the irony between science and religion in that they both think that the other is right and are both bothered by the fact that the other is trying to convert the other to each ones ideology, but do not mind the hypocrisy of their own actions of doing unto others what they would rather not have done unto them; The golden rule, a guideline that should be gold for anyone.

the begining of the end, final project first images.

4x5 view camera, tmax 400, studio bounce and diffused lights from camera left




took me much longer than expected but here is the first diptych of my new project "reflective portraits"

expect more soon homies.