The Pendulum Gallery Exhibition ‘ The Face of The Artist ‘ September 2010.

Pendulum Gallery

From the start of my career in photography, I have been interested in photographing faces, in particular, faces of creative people. Having always been surrounded by creative people who fascinated me by what they did, I felt I could understand them since I considered myself one of them.

This project, photographing portraits of people in arts and culture, started in 1991. At the beginning I was not aware that I was working on the project, since I had merely been asking people whom I knew to come and sit for me. For several years it has now become an on-going project that will never end and will never run out of material. Most of the people I photograph are successful in their own field and some of them are well recognized by the general public. These people often have strong public images. It was clear to me from the beginning that I do not want just to photograph their images—I wanted to capture the artist in them.

It has been a great privilege to be able to meet these people and spend time with them. Often, to my amazement, they reveal themselves before my camera, as if my studio were a safe place in which they could be their true selves. Before I start taking a new set of photographs I am usually quite nervous, for it is a new experience each time. I am convinced that the most important factor in taking a good photograph, portrait or not, is observing, and not about technique or fancy equipment.

To take portraits I use a film camera. The fact that I cannot see any finished image while shooting, as you would with a digital camera, makes me highly intuitive, and helps me to keep the connection alive between the sitter and myself. During a photography session, I feel that all my senses become synchronized and I am in the flow.

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