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.