We're drawn to portraits
because they are human beings,
and we're human beings.
I can relate to it somehow.
We're people, so we
like looking at people.
We're very social.
And I think that a
face can say so much.
We've been portraying ourselves
to imitate, represent, flatter,
to situate with some
kind of social status.
At its core, it's
our desire to record,
to document our existence.
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We've been depicting
people since cave drawings,
but that was more of a
ceremony or celebration.
In terms of portraiture,
the ancient Egyptians
were the first to
really depict the gods
and pharaohs as the gods, and
celebrate that and record that.
Same thing with the
Greeks and the Romans,
and up into even
medieval times, where
it was more religious figures.
The whole first part
of civilization,
in terms of what
we were portraying,
was the aspiration for
perfection and beauty,
and our interpretation
of it, largely because
of the philosophers of the time.
It certainly was also
where you stood in society.
If you could afford
to get a portrait done
in the first place, then you're
already making a statement
that I'm important.
When photography came
around, it was no longer
a portrayal of a human.
It was the reality.
It was a human.
And so there was no cheating.
There was no interpretation.
It was still portraiture,
but it was that person.
And then around the Civil
War, it was photojournalism.
And towards the
end of the 1800s,
people started using portraiture
as a means of expression
rather than just
recording events.
And now we're back
to the celebrities,
which are our modern
versions of gods.
They're the ones who a
lot of people worship.
And so my portraiture tries to
tell a little bit of a story.
What I look for is
something you can relate to.
We've almost come full circle.
But philosophically,
it's changed
in that it went from deifying
only the richest and most
powerful humans
to everyday folk.
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I love stories.
That's what draws
me to photography.
I took a photo at dawn
and I thought, wow,
this reminds me a lot
of how I feel when
I look at photos of my father.
Very disconnected feeling.
My father was diagnosed
with Alzheimer's in 2007.
I started the Sleepwalker
project in 2009,
and started taking
portraits of him.
And then also was
taking self-portraits
to participate in it, and have
him not feel like he's alone.
I'm really trying
to recreate someone
who's feeling
increasingly disconnected
with things around them,
from people around them.
I try to forget where
I am and focus on him
and what he's going through.
And I feel like when I'm
actually connected to that,
those are the best photos.
I really wanted to
track the disease
and have it tell a story
about what's happening to him.
Because time is everything
with Alzheimer's.
Like at what point,
if there is a point,
is he no longer the same person.
Soon, or eventually,
he won't know
who he is, and he won't know who
I am and who anyone around him
is.
So that's why I think, also,
that the Sleepwalker works
as a story.
Portrait photography is
incredibly relatable to us.
I think that a face
can say so much,
and portraits are
very accessible to us.
I think that he knows
that it's important to me,
and feels also that it
serves maybe potentially,
hopefully, a greater good.
My interest in
portraiture is really
driven by my fascination
to use the genre,
to use those photographic
tropes that we're
fluent in, and pervert them
or invert them in some way.
We understand group portraiture
and family portraiture so well,
and we bring our
own projections,
our own assumptions,
to each portrait.
In the Constructed
Family Portrait series
I would invite strangers
to rented hotel rooms,
and I would construct
artificial families.
And a lot of times, they
were interracial families.
These are ordinary people.
They were not actors.
They weren't model.
I didn't pay anyone.
And I was interested
in the uncanny,
and that's really why I
worked with strangers.
I wanted to find those really
unnatural, awkward moments.
The moment that
felt palpably wrong,
but they're kind of
masked behind the smiles.
What would happen was,
which was interesting,
the family just kind of
organically took form.
And it was really dependent and
contingent on their dynamic.
So if the woman, for example,
tended to be very domineering,
it tended to take on a more
matriarchal composition.
They intuitively knew
the certain behaviors,
and that fascinated me.
And there's been really
interesting reactions
to this series where
people feel deceived.
Even once you do know
that it's a construct,
you still intuitively
make those connections
and project those
narratives onto the family.
It's opening up a
conversation about, well,
what is family now, or
what does family look like,
or does it really
look like this.
And I find that
really interesting
it's because of how close
we are to the medium,
and how we understand the
medium because it's such
a part of our everyday lives.
There's a lot of ways
to photograph a person,
and intentions that one could
have in making a portrait.
What I'm interested in
is almost exclusively
that space between us,
the relational aspects.
A lot of the
photographic portrait
sittings that I do are
commissions, namely a magazine,
for example.
Oftentimes, there's some sort
of biographical piece, feature.
In those situations, in the
context of a formal sitting,
it doesn't work for
me to create some idea
and then put them on the idea.
I understand that
my subject is coming
to the sitting with an idea
of how they might project
their own representation.
So for example,
somewhat recently
was a commission
for GQ magazine.
Sam Brown was a lieutenant
serving in Afghanistan.
2008, roadside bomb, and
he's critically injured,
burned across half of
his body, his face.
So I wanted to
give him, in a way,
the power over his own image.
I took my cable
release for my camera
and turned it
inside to the frame.
Essentially, I invited him into
the decision-making process.
It is a choice so
let things happen,
to not apply a
situation on a person.
This kind of self-reflection
on the medium
and on the idea
of representation
that's not always with
intention or foreknowledge.
It's full of improvisation
and intuition and surprise.
I think a compelling
portrait makes someone think.
It makes someone think about
the person, about what they're
thinking about.
As long as they just
don't flip right by it,
I think it's compelling.
We are part of creating
what we perceive.
And in the case of a
portrait, to make us
see this person anew.
I want to show
someone my world.
And if they can relate
to that in a way,
then that's me relating to them.
How we're communicating
photographically is changing.
And I feel like the
role of the portrait
and the appearance of the
portrait has changed, as well.
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