 | This series of portraits was made while I was living in Tucson, Arizona, at a time when I was removed from the familiarities of home and loved ones. These few years out West, was a period of time of searching for a sense of place and belonging in my environment as well as through the people I encountered. The process of making these portraits was a very special event for both myself and the subjects. Each exposure was a minimum of 45 seconds, due to the relatively slower nature of the collodion medium combined with the use of indirect sunlight illuminating the sitters. The subjects were required to sit as still as possible, directly gazing into the lens of the camera. Creating the negative, from cutting the glass to varnishing the final plate, is a meditative experience, much like the patience and concentration elicited from my subjects. The markings and chemical traces formed by the process itself, represent events in the history of the individual’s life, like a kind of timeline. The organic nature of the wet-collodion process blurs the placement of time. The characteristics of the sitters, their expressions and clothing, suggest an ambiguity in time and place. Stripped of certainties, the direct gaze becomes the compelling force in these photographs. Looking into the subject’s eyes from another point in history, one can almost feel his or her penetrating eyes studying us on the other side.
Works are presented as 5" x 7" gold-toned gelatin silver printing-out paper contacts from wet-collodion negatives. |
