Woman
An ongoing series, Woman started as a depth of field assignment for a Black and White 101 lab photography class at the International Center of Photography in New York City. We were asked to photograph objects at different distances by simply changing the depth of field in the lens and I thought I wanted to photograph a real person instead because I was interested in portraiture and had never done any before this class and this series.
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.