Woman
So I grabbed three chairs from my apartment and we walked a few steps to the space underneath the Brooklyn Queens Expressway near Lorimer in Bushwick, Brooklyn (New York City). Mom was game. And when I first saw her portrait with the three chairs, I thought of her long life and how she was a maverick for the women in her generation. And I have been privy to the challenges during her life, and how those three chairs in essence spoke to a past, a present, and a future. I tried to imagine who she would be and look like twenty years from that day.
A woman is asked to:
- Bring three chairs.
- Select a location of her choosing, if feasible, a location of meaning to her.
- Dress and present herself visually as she pleases. She controls her presentation.
- She decides what to express to the camera.
The rules did not always work, logistics being the main challenge, but I made sure to discuss them at length with each woman. With one exception, all portraits are taken with AS400 black and white film so I could avoid using any light setup and instead use ambient light so as to strip as much photography production from the sessions. I felt the sessions needed to be as raw and as real as possible. No production. No assistants. My silence, my camera, and HER portrait session according to HER agency.