Adolescent Mask

I take pictures. Often. Very Often. And, probably the most rewarding shoots are the portraitures. I have always been fascinated by the human face. I know, most children focus on faces in their infancy. And, it is also a well known fact that children will have vivid memories of times when the first experience trauma. For me, in infancy, at one point my parents were simply not available. So, it is my belief that at that point, when I would cherish the sight of their faces leaning over my crib, the beginning of a very long path was born.

As a child I learned to study faces, to survive. Because of my family dynamic it was imperative that I learn to read body language so that I could feed back to them what they wanted to be fed. If I was not one step ahead, chaos would reign.

As a 6 yr. old, I was already steeped in Yousef Karsh portraits. I was mesmerized by the clarity, the very pores of the men and women portrayed, crystal clear. There was something behind the eyes, that was a traitor to the stance, to the pose...the rage in Churchill's eyes, for example.

When I take pictures of people, I speak a little prayer of sorts, a beckoning to the Powers, that I may capture the spark, the dark, the insane or the glorybound in that space which lingers behind the mask, yet before the bone.