The Portrait Chronicles

I have a vision of beauty in my mind’s eye. I am compelled to translate that vision into an image. Sometimes that process is as painful as the sensation of expelling a splinter from the flesh of my thumb but the result brings me a moment of satisfaction. Then the impulse comes again to create a new image that is more like my vision and I’m on to the next attempt.

Beauty is a set of characteristics possessed by a person, place, object, or idea that evokes a sensory experience of pleasure, meaning, or satisfaction to the perceiver. The experience resonates with personal meaning. An object of beauty can be observed, chronicled and recorded as such, but cannot be engaged with or possessed. Once an attempt is made, the relationship is altered.

I am a chronicler of likenesses, a portrait artist. Photography is the medium that best suits my needs. My work is based on an evolving set of principles and practices. There is no financial component to my work. I don’t accept payment or pay for shooting a subject, nor do I sell my work. The final purpose of my work is to be seen and my goals are to publish books, create a website, and stage an exhibition.

A successful portrait is a compelling convergence of subject, camera, and light. At the moment of conception, each image exists independently of me and the subject. As with any creation, it takes on a life of its own.

My choice of a subject is intuitive. Each person possesses unique face, physicality, and character energy. These three characteristics are the basis of creating a compelling image.

The camera provides the flexibility to study the infinite possibilities presented by the relationship between subject and light. We need one other to create an image. The camera and I are one. I am the camera.

Light is the basis of visual perception. It inspires the camera to capture the unique individuality of each subject. Subtle gradations between light and no-light delineate physicality elements which define character energy.

The images pose a question to the viewer. Do they possess the potential to inspire one to see beyond the obvious, the conventional, and the ordinary?

“If the subject and I are both famous a hundred years from now because of the portrait we created, then I shall consider myself to be a great success.”

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