100 - Family style
Yesterday I went to visit my grandmother at the nursing home. She's in Stage 7 of Alzheimer's disease, the final stage of that horrible, horrible illness.
When I got there, I was pleasantly surprised to see my great aunt and uncle who were also there to visit her (my grandmother is my great-uncle's sister - if that makes sense). We chatted a bit and I asked if I could make portraits of them and they willingly obliged. My favorites of each are below.
After they left, I decided I wanted to photograph my grandmother. It's hard to even look at the photos as she's just a shell of who she was even as recently as 3 years ago. What made her "her" is entirely gone, but I wanted to document her as she is now at age 83. I tried some regular portraits but she is very "fidgety" and she has also become very slouched from being in a wheelchair all of the time, so none turned out satisfactory.
Near the end of the visit, I pulled out the camera again and just waited for her to look in my direction and make "eye contact" with the camera. Eventually she did and I took the photo. It's actually much better than anything I tried to pose and more accurately captures her as she is now.
I've had several people email me about 100 and ask about my intentions behind the portraits. My primary goal is to show the the aging processes through 100 different people of 100 different ages. I want to document how our lives are captured in our faces and bodies, how life's highs and lows become a part of us.
As a photographer, I have lots of experience shooting "pretty" people and in many cases, making them even prettier though a bit of Photoshop magic. But I want the portraits in this project to capture who the subjects really are, both in appearance and in personality. I want my subject to look into the lens thinking "This is who I am." To me, they are all beautiful in a way that doesn't need Photoshop or soft focus filters or skin smoothing to exist. That beauty comes from them being true to themselves. And as the person capturing their image, I want to be true to them as well.
When I got there, I was pleasantly surprised to see my great aunt and uncle who were also there to visit her (my grandmother is my great-uncle's sister - if that makes sense). We chatted a bit and I asked if I could make portraits of them and they willingly obliged. My favorites of each are below.
After they left, I decided I wanted to photograph my grandmother. It's hard to even look at the photos as she's just a shell of who she was even as recently as 3 years ago. What made her "her" is entirely gone, but I wanted to document her as she is now at age 83. I tried some regular portraits but she is very "fidgety" and she has also become very slouched from being in a wheelchair all of the time, so none turned out satisfactory.
Near the end of the visit, I pulled out the camera again and just waited for her to look in my direction and make "eye contact" with the camera. Eventually she did and I took the photo. It's actually much better than anything I tried to pose and more accurately captures her as she is now.
I've had several people email me about 100 and ask about my intentions behind the portraits. My primary goal is to show the the aging processes through 100 different people of 100 different ages. I want to document how our lives are captured in our faces and bodies, how life's highs and lows become a part of us.
As a photographer, I have lots of experience shooting "pretty" people and in many cases, making them even prettier though a bit of Photoshop magic. But I want the portraits in this project to capture who the subjects really are, both in appearance and in personality. I want my subject to look into the lens thinking "This is who I am." To me, they are all beautiful in a way that doesn't need Photoshop or soft focus filters or skin smoothing to exist. That beauty comes from them being true to themselves. And as the person capturing their image, I want to be true to them as well.
posted by Tony Urban at 5:55 PM
1 Comments:
"I want my subject to look into the lens thinking "This is who I am." To me, they are all beautiful in a way that doesn't need Photoshop or soft focus filters or skin smoothing to exist. That beauty comes from them being true to themselves. And as the person capturing their image, I want to be true to them as well."
Brav-friggin-O!!!
That just sounds so odd coming from a 'primarily' studio guy :D
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