Category: Portrait

Modern Surprise?

New York

Well, at least the lamp is straight in this one, but I look like a deer caught in the headlights and that shirt just has to go! The one below has a yellowish color cast to it and we’re the wrong size compared to the one above. Nothing yet ready to add to Modern Romance.

Pat Walls

Brightwells Yard, Farnham

Sculptor Pat Walls putting the finishing touches to one of his several sandstone statues (here, the wheelwright) portraying the crafts and trades of Farnham in the Brightwells Yard development in Farnham as it holds out hope of completing. I had a nice chat with him about his practice and he described to me each of the artisans portrayed in the statues.

Portrait of the Artist as a Dog

Magnum, Arles, France

Magnum had an event with lots of their photographers conducting book signings and an exhibit of a dialog of photographs and commentary on Gaza. Needless to say, I found the one place where I could photograph myself. I tried to line myself up with the legs in Erwitt’s famous photograph but failed.

Long Term Couple

Farnham train station

My project of the final semester of the MFA has been about the relationship of long-term older couples. The current portfolio comprises pictures of my partner and me only, but I am considering branching out to add more couples and make it a more representative and documentary project. When I saw this couple kissing on the platform I asked them if I could photograph them. Unfortunately, the train pulled in just then so I only had time to grab this single shot and could learn no more about them.

Painter Portrait

Mayfair, London

Leaving the Goodman Gallery and turning a corner I came upon this man taking a short break from painting the wooden scaffold behind him. It seemed such an excellent canvas for a portrait I had to ask him if I could take his picture. He joked that it would break my lens and, when I showed him the image, that now he would be famous.

Skate Park Graffiti

Southbank, London

I don’t know the history but there are several graffiti areas in the vicinity of Waterloo Station and the Southbank. I’ve previously shown the graffiti tunnel. I found more along the River Thames edge that had been turned into an open air, underground skate park.

Southbank, London

Bild

Javits Center, New York

In years past, there was a large photo expo at the Javits Center every October. This stopped with the pandemic and has not been re-instituted. One of the frequent features was camera, flash and software vendors setting up booths where hired models would pose for the overwhelmingly older male photographers to “test” the vendors’ wares. This was becoming a little difficult to justify, especially following #me_too and I seem to recall that in the last year or so of these events, models were less scantily clad, some were male, and fewer booths hosted them at all. This year, B&H hosted their own expo, Bild (German and Yiddish for picture), and I was surprised to find the models were back in force. This one was near the bathrooms where I waited while a friend was inside and I found her attire visually interesting. Alas, when I turned back for another shot, she’d been replaced by a less-well accoutred, sequin-y colleague.