The Essence of a Person

Everyone brings something different to the collaboration, the collaboration of life and the collaboration of portraiture. As a portrait artist, I am enchanted by this and am grateful for the experience. My goal is to freeze a moment in time that will never be captured again. Now, it is possible in portraiture for an image to make a person look better or worse than in real life. Did you know that?

Portraiture can make a person look better or worse than they do in real life. An element, in portraiture, I find essential is the capturing or creating, essentially, of an otherworldly illusion that is not present in the natural dimension. This is only playing fair, for in the realm of portraiture the essence of a person, the aura, is not easily captured. In person, you can feel the presence of another. In portraiture, this needs to be created.

I had the good fortune, yesterday, of photographing four new people. These were people I had met before and maybe that made it easier. I’m smiling as I think of how each of these people brought something different to the collaboration. Each, an individual personality. Each, an entirely different kind of photograph. We kind of flew through the photographs. It was about thirty minutes I was there. I looked around the back yard, where I was working – backdrops were plenty but, most of all, it was the collaboration with each individual that most helped to make each photograph unique.

The essence of a person, shining through in two-dimensional form. That is my goal, that is my interest. I am not a photographer for photograph’s sake. I do not care, exactly, what a person looks like. I care what a person feels like. I care about seeing the spirit inside of the human form. That is why I am here. Find this, today, inside someone. You will find life.

Love life,

c.s.