Hands Up!

I get a lot of comments about portraits I take showing hands. The top photograph shows the hands of a classical pianist I had photographed . Hands can be expressive, sculpted, definitely a part of the personality of the sitter and in many cases directly, overtly and consciously affecting the overall look and feel of the portrait. The bottom photograph was done many years ago, of a musician and professor from the Royal Conservatory of Music. Many people have commented on this portrait for its "Karsh-like" quality... probably because of its timelessness and very still, studied composition.

Revisiting Tamara

I recently invited Tamara back to do two more sessions with me. She had first worked with me on the series This Is My Body (first image below). Now she very kindly agreed to return to do some more photos. She proudly pointed out she was not feeling like the same person I knew the last time I had met her. For one thing, she said she had lost about 20 lbs. She was also much more relaxed and confident with herself, taking direction from me with her wry humour and self-deprecating sarcasm evident.

I hope I will gather enough material from the three sessions to put a small show together for her. This would be a great thing to do, to show the continuity of the work and the emotional and physical changes in her. Sometimes I have thought of Lucien Freud's sitter "The Postal Worker" when working with Tamara, and I suppose this was an influence in the semi-reclining and sleeping series I just did with her. It's a different spin on her, without the raw emotional intensity of the earlier work but I think it shows Tamara more at peace with herself.