My project was founded in portrait photography. Portraits interest me because someone’s personality can be captured in a single photo. I’ve always wanted to get better at portraits and get more experience with composing and photographing them, but I haven’t gotten very far. This project was at first meant to give me an opportunity to take more portraits and get better at the medium, but it suddenly became something different.

 

I’m a filmmaker first and a photographer second so I wanted to use a video format for my project and still integrate photography. What I decided to do was to take moving image portraits. I have a subject and meticulously focus on the composition, lighting, lens, and pose of the subject and instead of hitting the shutter, I hit the record button. I wanted to emphasize every step of capturing the portrait because I’ve had a problem in all my films; the presentation of the subjects in my films are very boring and nothing is portrait quality. Shouldn’t every shot of an actor in a film look as good as a portrait? 

 

Progressing my skills as a portrait photographer aids my skills as a filmmaker, cinematographer, and camera operator. This is why I wanted to focus so heavily on portraits. My idea inevitably changed and shifted towards exploring spaces through portrait-like compositions. What you’ll see in my project is a collection of about 20 moving images, all with people as the subject. These compositions aren’t similar to portraits, however. The subjects often aren’t acting or posing for the camera and rather are doing their own thing. All the moving images in this collection were taken in one space at the same time, so you get a vivid feeling of the energy and atmosphere of the space. 

 

I invite you to enter the space and experience it for yourself.