One Portrait, Two Views
With this series: One Portrait, Two Views, I am presenting the visual experience of a photographic portrait. I photographed all of the models (my friends) in their homes and then photographed the same space with them no longer in the image.
There is one exception to this formula and that is the diptych shot at the Peabody Essex museum; this is a photograph in a public place with the model turned away from the camera. Although it was not my intent to make a contrary statement with this image, it does raise some interesting questions as to what are the necessary qualities of a photographic portrait. Must the subject be looking into the camera and making eye contact with the viewer? Does a space without the subject have enough personal information to be described as a portrait?
