In Many of my photographs and photo-collages going back decades I have images of people with one eye open and one eye closed. I’ve always been attracted to this imagery because it’s both visually disconcerting and emotionally resonant. The person is grounded in reality but also allowing for an interior life, a dream. This is the dream eye.
Some of the images were the result of two photographs photoshopped together but many others were actually just one image where I asked the person to simply close one eye. It is easy to do but not easy to do in such a way as both eyes looked relaxed. When I found a person who could do that it was a real treat.
Here is a selection from that series.
Dream Eye with Pearl Earring
Dream Eye with Suspicion
Dream Eye with Future
Dream Eye with Broken Pot
Dream Eye with Perception
Dream Eye with Trust
Dream Eye with Question
Dream Eye with Excitement
Dream Eye with Decision
Thanks to all my friends and models who trusted me with their faces.
She was standing in the back of the vintage store, trying to step out of her closet into the real world. She had found her style, her look but she was still tentative about stepping into the limelight, about getting attention for who she was. But she was halfway out and you can’t get all the way out without first going half way. I knew she would make it eventually.
She sold me the paper coasters in Tucson and had a trucker hat on and I asked if I could take her photo but without it on and she said she was vain but she would let me and I am glad she took the hat off because her eyes were cool.
From a commissioned couples photo shoot. I jokingly suggested we go outside and do some shots among the leaves and bare trees, thinking she would say no due to the cold. But she was more than game and we came away with some fantastic shots of her.
From a shoot over the summer in a auto repair shop. I didn’t particularly like this in color and didn’t revisit it until November. I like the view from above in this one. It gives a combination of sexiness and dirty work that has the underlying question of what sort of work is dirty, is she the dirty one because of her outfit, or is the photo dirty, is the place dirty?
This week is about black and white portraits. I have a weakness for that look that has light showing off the skin, it’s texture and details. The one yesterday was about that. This one is from around 1990. It is a film shot so the skin details aren’t there the way I can capture them now, but you can still see my interest in getting the feeling of light and heat on the skin.
‘Sisters in the Heat’
Plus, what’s not to like about the late 80s early 90s look of hair and clothing, right?
Often I will just play with an image just to keep in practice regarding my Photoshop skills. I spent about 2 hours on this one, just trying different things, not having a particular agenda since it wasn’t commissioned. I like having some time to do that and it is essential for any artist to spend time just ‘goofing’ off so to speak. Without it your work can become so stale and uninspiring that you cease to do it any more.
Tulsa State Fair – The area behind the midway and outside the big expo building is a great place to see spaces and people in unexpected juxtapositions.
‘The Painter and the Custodians’
But don’t go there if you have a sensitive nose. It truly stinks!
This collage combines two photos from a shoot I did with a fellow co-worker at the Restaurant where I worked. The color images in the background of the framed image are of the SF bay on one side and of the Nevada desert on the other.
‘A Woman Looking at Herself’, photo-collage
There had been a photo of a nude male on the wall in that location and I originally posed her to be looking at it. But it seemed tacky and I didn’t really like the photo of the guy so I decided to put an image of my own in its place.
I love doing portraits with one eye closed. There is something so disconcerting about it at first. But it then also allows you to think about two different aspects of the person at the same time, and how they coexist. Plus it just looks really cool.
