Look Back At You

Reflect

portrait

In a portrait, I'm looking for the silence in somebody. Henri Cartier-Bresson

is the difficult act of putting one's camera between the skin of a person and his shirt.

The most difficult thing for me is a portrait. You have to try and put your camera between the skin of a person and his shirt. Henri Cartier-Bresson

is an art whose subject doesn't want justice, but mercy.

When having my portrait painted I don't want justice, I want mercy.

is identifiable as a good portrait only if the eyes follow you around the room.

In a good portrait... the eyes follow you around the room.

is represented by only two styles: the serious and the smirk.

There are only two styles of portrait painting... the serious and the smirk.

is not painted to look like the subject, rather it is painted such that the person grows to look like his portrait.

I do not paint a portrait to look like the subject, rather does the person grow to look like his portrait.

 comes from deep in the soul of the painter where the machine can't go.

And painted portraits have a life of their own that comes from deep in the soul of the painter and where the machine can't go.

is created not by compelling a sitter to remain as stationary as possible. Rather, it is valuable to keep the sitter moving and talking and unconscious of being painted... not to extract some essence, but to establish, in motion, an essential image of the kind that remains in memory or recurs in dreams.

I try to keep my sitters moving and talking, to make them forget they are being painted. This has nothing to do with extracting intimate secrets or confessions, but rather with establishing, in motion, an essential image of the kind that remains in memory or recurs in dreams.

portrait, n.All

portrait