The body is a beautiful thing, is it not?
When I look at a person I'm not just seeing them as a whole... which may sound weird. I see them in pieces. The pieces I see don't define who they are, of course. But I can see all the beautiful, lovely parts of their body. The way the light catches their hair. A curve in their back or on their cheekbone. The way they tuck their hair behind their ear. The contrast between their profile and the light shining from behind them.
I was at a friend's house one day and I noticed the light casting shadows from the plants in his window onto the wall. I was mesmerized. I took a photo with my cell phone. Then I gushed about it to him. Until that moment he had never noticed it. He had lived in that house for over 10 years. I see these things all the time. The world and the beauty in it is so distracting to me.
I began shooting silhouettes of people a long time ago. But recently decided to make a whole session of it. Some call them bodyscapes, some call them nudescapes. I started doing these for my Body is a Battlefield project... close-ups of the body in almost an unrecognizable way. I took what I knew about the body and applied it to intimate portrait sessions.
We are all more than just pieces of our body. But, there is so much delicacy and intimacy in seeing the beauty in those pieces. I swear I once fell in love with a boy because of the way his hair curled out from under his baseball cap and the way his eyes looked when they met mine. Sections of moments and people, but so filled with loving meaning.
Here are some highlights from a few recent sessions.
