“My Portraits are more about me then the people I photograph” Richard Avedon
In these portraits of my friends, I am searching for traces of my own feelings and experiences, within my third party subjects. It is this act of exposing oneself and feeling exposed that most interests me. I am putting my subjects in the same state of vulnerability that I may feel at that very moment. There is an awkwardness that comes with the feeling of being revealed, either by being fully nude, partially, or just simply by having being the focus of the piece. I am searching to expose and understand the relationship between time, space, and subject.
As such, these portraits take on attributes of self-portraits rather than third-party portraits. I begin to confront myself by gaining control over the images that I make, practically making an imprint of myself within them. I observe other people’s discomfort/comfort in a state of partial or total nudity,, as a way to confront my own insecurity about revealing myself, physically and emotionally.
