Distinguishing Features

I chose my starting point of this project to be a photo by John Loengard, who was born in New York City in 1935 and had a fantastic career of photography, capturing movie stars like Marilyn Monroe, and most importantly everyday people engaged in actions that become extraordinary in his photo's. He captures life in its highest essence and makes the ordinary extremely beautiful. The photo in particular that i loved was of the Photographer Brassai in Paris in 1981. Loengard writes below the picture in the particular copy of the book I have, that "Brassai quickly moved his fingers up into a circle around his eye to mimic mine as I took the shot." This kind of split second action really caught my attention, because I think that photography that is un-posed and un-choreographed is the most impressive because it captures a moment irreplaceable. I realized this was what i wanted to focus on in my project- the moments that last less than a second, when all emotion and nature is at the perfect balance and the photo is perfect. Because you really can tell when a photo is posed. In addition, i wanted to look at skin and age and flesh and eyes, in their exposed and simple form; all wrinkles, spots, pores, cracks and dryness to the skin. This is what i love about the Loengard photo, because it also has the huge contrast between the aged skin and the watery, beady, attentive eyes. This is perfectly applicable to the I, Me, Mine title because it is the idea of 'what you see is what you get'- my identity is there, captured in high definition and you can make what you want of it, but i am unashamed and will not be embarrassed. I suppose my project is then about confidence and honesty.