Regardless of a photographer's intentions, every photograph tells a different story to each person that views it. An entire narrative can be completed in one photograph or drawn out over many. Knowing these things, I took these photographs without a story or narrative in mind, hoping only to create a series of moments, one at a time. In this respect, any story created is done so entirely by the viewer. Though some of the pictures shown here have common elements and some are very different from all of the others, they are bound by a vacant, knowing stare in the eyes of the subjects.
This stare is very important to me. It creates a binding theme of presence in the pictures without being explicit about what the presence is. Perhaps the subject is divinely inspired, perhaps they are simply bored, staring off into space.
The portraits shown here were taken over the course of about a year, and the project continues to grow. Pictures from the project have been displayed at various Oberlin College art exhibitions.
