Fragments of Light No. 2: Seeing You

I recently posted the following on Instagram: "If you don't love yourself enough, I can't take a picture of you. If you love yourself too much, I can't either." Of course, such statements shouldn't be considered universal truths, but primarily reflect my personal perspective. However, portrait photography is precisely about capturing people while they are aware of their own feelings. There are moments when people are "not themselves"—whether because they perceive themselves differently than they actually are or because their objective and subjective self-image don't align.

There are iconic portraits of people with extreme personality traits, many of whom were closer to themselves than one might think. How did personalities like Marilyn Monroe or Andy Warhol feel in front of the camera when they were being portrayed?

As a photographer, especially when photographing actors, I experience how difficult it is for them to be themselves and pose for a portrait. How can they show themselves without being influenced by the many personalities they look up to? How can I manage to block out, to peel back the layers of these many personalities they mentally orient themselves towards?

Perhaps one of the great secrets of portrait photography lies in stretching individual snapshots into series that capture different aspects of an individual's life. My current style of portrait photography was inspired back in the 1980s by Dennis Stock's work with James Dean in the 1950s and Bert Stern's final sittings with Marilyn Monroe at the Beverly Hills Hotel in the early 1960s. Even though I was doing travel and mountain photography at the time, I'm reminded of these series almost every time I look at them today.

My photographic work will increasingly develop in this direction in the future. More documentary, more context and space to transform a mere snapshot into a “real” portrait.

Today, when social media increasingly focuses on staging and distorting self-image, this is the right way for me.