Context Matters

The process of portraiture is mysterious to me. Each person, no matter how well I know them, becomes a complete stranger in front of the camera, for a moment, but then they become totally familiar. Somehow I have to unwrap them from within the foldings of themselves. There is a process of discovery in the capture phase, but the real revelation occurs in ‘post-production’ when the images are 'exposed' for the first time. That exposure is often startling. I feel as if I have seen the person for the very first time. When I do an ODE the photo chooses itself. It ‘works’ best when this happens. And it’s usually obvious. I use the photo that speaks with the most profound voice, not necessarily the most flattering or aesthetically pleasing. There’s something thematic, textural, and contextual I’m looking for, or feeling for, that becomes the container for the container. It’s about tones. And zones. Blocks of color and shadow. The words follow the contours of the light. What I’m after is a sublime visual field that has an almost fractal quality so that you can go deeper and deeper and see more and more. The idea is to be unforgettable. To leave an impression that will last. I have barely scratched the surface of this. Only some of the ODEs achieve this, I think but one of those is Maggie. I could write a thousand words describing our time together in the Marin Headlands the day this photo was taken. But I won’t do that. I’ll let the image speak for itself. Or not.