Another in my week long series of detailed portraits from the last few years.
This one is of a dental hygienist where I get my teeth worked on. She is much prettier
than this photo shows since I manipulated it extensively to bring out all the details of
her skin texture.
This is a series of black and white images that I worked on to create a very painterly,
beautiful and moody feel to them. I wanted them to look hyper real yet very other
worldly at the same time.
I went to new eye doctor that was closer to wear I live. This is her. I wanted to do a collage, but I liked the straight photo so much I didn’t go past it. I had to get new glasses by the end of 2007 for insurance purposes so I waited until New Years Eve day to go to the local eye doctor in my small town in Oklahoma. The whole staff was very nice and the doctor agreed to pose for me after we were all done. The light coming in through the office windows was fantastic and brought a beautiful glow to her skin and eyes.
The Dress shop clerk, happy and without guile. We have gone in the store a number of times on
our visit to Del Mar, it is a resale shop with great clothes and great deals. We were looking for
hats for the first day of the Del Mar Racetrack season, which we were going to attend just for
fun! Didn’t find a hat there, but did find some great deals and a great Tommy Bahama shirt.
She had brilliant blue eyes and the bright San Diego sun was out in full force so I asked her to
pose for me right outside her shop, which she was happy to do. I am not sure she was hot on my
taking photos of her feet, probably worried I had a foot fetish or something (I don’t), but she
allowed me to nonetheless.
Del Mar, California, July 2008
Day four of the week long rejection suite images. The idea behind this series wasn’t
just to do something with the rejection letters, it was to do something with the
rejected photographs I had taken over the years. This collage is an example of that,
using a boring ocean photo, two portraits that were just lighting experiments, and a
flared and blurred photo of who the hell knows what. Each by themselves wouldn’t be of
much interest but when put together with other images they certainly have much more
value and purpose.
I had gone down to Oklahoma City from my home in Tulsa (about 100 miles) to drop off my presentation for the upcoming Photoslam event. I decided to take the day and check out some galleries down that way, something I really hadn’t done before.
When I entered the ‘Untitled’ [art space] gallery this woman was at the door greeting people, explaining the current show, etc. She was very helpful about explaining how the show came about (it was a year end showing of multiple grant recipients’ work).
We got to talking about me being an artist since I had my camera with me, and I asked her if she was as well. She turned out to be an art historian in training, going to college.
The gallery was somewhat dark, but there were large windows in the front that let in great ambient light. Her eyes, as is obvious, were brilliant blue. I told her about my reason for being in OKC, and explained the ‘truth’ project I would present at the show. I asked her if she would be willing to pose for a collage from the truth series as well and she thought it would be a cool idea.
One of the artists in the gallery had large constructions. One of the constructions had a shredder attached to it that was churning out shredded paper very slowly. Photos of that, with photos of her were the perfect combination for what I learned about her as we talked; her life, doubts, fears, wonderings, etc.
I saw her every day and what stood out about her was her hair. She pulled it back
tight against her head into a bun. I didn’t know what her hair was like actually,
beyond that it was brown. Because her hair was somewhat out of the picture I was
able to see her bone structure very well. She had a great neck and skull, elegant
and regal.
When I asked her if I could take some photos of her I explained those things to her.
She was surprised since she said she only put her hair up out of convenience and
didn’t really think it made her look all that great.
When the next school year came around after a summer off (she was a student) I
noticed for the first time she was wearing her hair down quite often. It was very
long and curly/wavy, almost half way down her back. I asked her why she had decided
to wear it down more and she said she had been getting bad headaches. She went to
the doctor for them and found out it was likely from pulling her hair too tight into
the bun every day!
She was waiting for her man, a traveling sportsman, the longest they had been apart,
she had a new car, was hoping he would like it, he was tall, buy maybe not tall enough,
she goes to school full time and works full time, it’s been hard but she is excited to
see him, she was hoping she was in the right place.
Tulsa International Airport, Oklahoma
7/29/06
She wasn’t sure what the photos were going to turn out like, and either was I. I
loved the light in the lobby where I worked and this student happened by one morning
as the sun reflected off the granite floor.
I liked her red complexion but when I worked half the collage up in black and white
and took out 2 of the 3 channels I also loved the porcelain look of her skin. This
got me thinking about how others might perceive her in different ways; red, white,
porcelain, ruddy, however, her perception of her self, her truth is the same no
matter who she is in front of. That is how I came upon the title for this piece.
It is in the ‘Truths and Things I Made Up About This Woman’ series, even with the
variant title.