Revisiting Beauty

Revisiting Beauty is a series inspired by portrait paintings of the twentieth century, in particular, artists such as De La Roche, Stroganov, Sargent, Whistler, Hockney, and portraits created in the mid 1900’s by many anonymous painters. My own background as a painter also informs these photographs. This work is part of a larger project that examines connections of color, landscape, pose, and object as a way to reconsider the formal expression of the photographic portrait and give a nod to classic painterly sensibilities.

Over the last decade photography has turned away from the ideal of beauty, as it has turned away from the wet darkroom and the idea of crafting a singular artistic print.  I wanted to create a body of work that was formal and beautiful, capturing girls between the ages of 14 – 17 on the cusp of womanhood and not fully aware of their own loveliness and physical presence, revealing a tender age before they leave the familiar. I only work with people I know and seek to portray them with dignity and sensitivity. The subjects are photographed against a colorful backdrop completed with a landscape I have captured, either in China or California.  The result is a feminization of the landscape and a more painterly approach to creating photographs, yet allowing the shadows and earmarks of the photograph to be revealed.