AFTER THE SHOOT

The portrait making process conveys the emotions of the moment quite well if conducted with care and sensitivity.  But what about after you leave the subject.  What about that lingering feeling or impression after you meet someone?  How do you convey that?  If you write well, that’s easy. You write. If you make art, there it is.  You create art based on your feelings.

That is where my Introspection series comes in to play. Raw emotion is what my Introspection series is about. Not the sort of raw emotive reaction by displaying horrific subject matter that disturbs the viewer to the point of repulsion, but rather by invoking the viewer to engage in my image. To be drawn in because the image speaks to them.  The viewer feels something that can't always be put into words. 

My Introspection images are generally made by montaging my street photography with my street portraits along with mark-making. However in this image, I painted a color and texture on rag paper with acrylic paint and made a photographic image, then montaged that with the portrait. 

The subject in this image is a man who lives on the streets called Murphy. He is quiet and soft spoken. In fact, he speaks slowly and his words seem to be measured. He lives under an interstate overpass he calls the second bridge north of downtown. It turns out, he knows a few people I know and he volunteers with a local church. 

We talked a bit on the sidewalk and I asked if I could make his portrait. Often people want to pose for their picture and I go along with it so they can relax but I rarely use the posed shots because they are too stiff.  I shoot while we talk and they get used to the camera. Those are the shots I generally use.

I needed some time to process my first impression of Murphy. He seems nice enough. He comes across like an open book but there is something he seems not to be sharing. I just can’t articulate it. But I suppose that can be said of most of us.