Images of My Thoughts

type of portraiture.

These are County College of Morris professors.  When I was shooting this project, Instead of having time to carry on a conversation, I had about 1 to 2 minutes with each subject because of the time constraint.  Therefore, I tried my best to be as genuine as I can, telling them what this shoot is about and pretty much just show sincerity and that usually make people act the same way and are able to be more comfortable.

I told the subjects that I just want a genuine expression, if they can’t do that, then just do something comical.  But, these three portraits below show their personalities and characters just from their expressions on their faces.

What does our minds go through when we see street musicians?  Do we categorize them as beggars?  Do we see them as low end of the society?  This is what’s wrong with everyone in the world today (not judging, I am the same way); we like to place people on a scale of our own before we even know who they are and what they are capable of.

For the longest time, I thought to myself that street musicians are nothing more than people who knows a little bit of their instruments trying to make a living from it.  Well, that is before I got to know them; now, I do not share that same feeling and my respect toward their dedications are sincere.

Most of them have regular jobs, but during their free times, they want to do what they really enjoys, their passions, even with every judgmental eyes that pass by them and every comments that goes through their ears, they are not phased, not when they truly know what their passion is about.

Those people make me think about myself, am I willing to put myself out there for the world to see, take all the criticisms and still stand up tall?  Well, at the point, there is no other options for me.  Since one year and a half ago, I told myself I cannot fail at any cost, since I have done so once already.  But I would love to know where those people get their courage…

my child is a prize
she adds color to my eyes
and to all my different lives
but the truth of her beauty lies
in the black and white insides
the depth that color hides
and the mother in me cries
as the child in her dies
holding onto prides
knowing she is wise
but still a sadness tries
to prolong the goodbyes

- Sue

This beautiful poem is written by Erica (the model)’s mother, Sue.  She was looking at the color version of this image (October 9th) and this one at the same time and without the distraction of color, she notices more how beautiful and thoughtful Erica is in the cyanotype image and hence the poem to describe her thoughts.

As an outsider of this mother and daughter relationship as well as the author of this portrait, I cannot help but wonder the different meanings that this image give to people because of the different social background everyone is at in relation to this image.  To me, this image is a part of something greater, it is just a piece of the puzzle; however, to Sue, that is obviously not true.

When I first heard that she wrote a poem because of the image, I was overjoyed.  The idea of reinterpretation of images is part of the main reason why I love photography so much.  Now, people are expressing their thoughts behind my images and this idea makes me feel like I am going in the right direction.

As I told Sue, “An image without thoughts behind it is just a dead end picture; but with this poem, the image has become a tale that connect the mother to the daughter,the readers to the author and the viewers to the photographer.”

Here is the B&W image to match the poem:

Each pair of eyes of photographers is unique.  The idea of seeing the 3 dimensional but capture it into the 2 dimensional while reinterpreting the image just really fascinates me.  Photographs now a days are never the exact interpretation of the truth.  The framing, the subjects, the alterations of the image, and the context within the series of images bring photography into a level of beyond the surface of the world, perhaps, it is a level of revealing the inner qualities of the world from the perspective of the photographers.

This is the reason why I love photography so much.  It has become a communication mechanism between the people who see the photographs as well as the people and the photographers.  Furthermore, this communication is not restriction by any kind of barriers; it is a communication of the minds.

One of my goals in photography is not just to produce beautiful images; but to produce meaningful images that can be aesthetically pleasing.  I believe that with thoughts behind the images that I produce, even if people do not see the thoughts, they can sense it, hence, making my images stronger.

This triptych below was one of my projects in my class.  Three of them show the isolation of the space and the loneliness of the subjects; yet, these images were taking in a chain grocery store, a town park and a local high school, respectively.  All three places do not give the vibe of loneliness or isolation when I was there, but in order to accomplish what I previsualized, I was able to alter the environment into a one that I desire.