Readers
Between January and May of 2008, I made over 70 portraits of people reading in Paris parks. I was interested in the dialogue between this solitary act and the social context of the public or communal space in which it occurred. What I found, very quickly, was that there were additional dialogues at issue through this project. Chief amongst them were the actual conversations that I had with the readers I photographed.
As I spoke with each one of the readers who participated, we investigated notions of photography today: how people feel about being documented (and how I as a photographer feel about making photographs in public spaces) in the context of our surveillance society, heated debate and case law surrounding the right of the image, and the impact of the digital age on perceptions about photography in general. Whenever a reader chose not to participate, (1-2 of every 10 readers I asked declined) I asked why. The responses were fascinating, as were the reasons for readers agreeing to participate. Many people were hesitant at first—prepared to say no—but then something would suddenly change: the way I described the project, exposing myself to their critique, or often the simple fact that I was using a Rolleiflex (perceived as 'unique,' 'serious' and 'earnest') as opposed to a digital camera.
There is also a metaphorical dialogue between any artwork and its title: for this project, the titles for the reader-portraits are taken directly from the titles of the publication being read in each image. The absent writer then too becomes a part of the conversation; the literary titles of what is being read frame the photographs, the photographs become alternate possibilities for each title’s content.
My photographic work is informed by my work in theatre and performance. In both domains I am interested in relationships, dialogues, and what happens in the pauses, those quiet or noisy fragments that have 'chronotopic' potential: as Mikhail Bakhtin describes it, for "the knots of narrative [to be] tied and untied" and for time to become "palpable and visible."