I asked Dan if he wanted to add something to the piece I did about him. He agreed, and here it is.
When I tried to consider how to talk about the portraits we took together, I found it easy to pull out a few shots that I found visually or emotionally interesting, but hard to figure out how to talk about why. I decided my best bet was to try to name them.
"Too tired to save the world". I love the lines in this one. The continued angle between my raised elbow and the arm behind my back is an interesting contrast to the rounded lines of my stomach and back. The look on my face interests me, too. I look drained, but like I'm keeping a secret reserve of energy, just in case something exciting happens.
"Offending myself". I know that look. I'm sure my friends recognize it, too. I can't resist a straight line, and I have to follow the joke through. Unfortunately, I'm also extremely cautious about offending people, and usually, I'm the first one offended. I often end up wincing at my own insensitivity before I even reach the punchline, but I almost always finish.
"Gluteaphobia". I think what's probably my biggest body image issue left is an obsession with how big my ass is. I love how in this picture, you can actually see the fear, or at least nervousness, in my eyes at letting someone look directly at my ass. I know we were trying to photograph my mole (hi, mole!) but I always get very self-conscious when I'm naked with my back to someone, and it looks like I'm trying to say something funny to distract you. There's a bit of nervous desperation in this shot that I find kind of cute.
"I'm still right". This is a look that I don't think I get very often. What I see on my face here is "I think you're wrong, but I'm not going to try to convince you". Normally, I either change my mind (that happens a LOT) or I keep after people to change theirs. I wish I could remember what you said when we took this one, but it really looks like I pulled back in for a minute here -- normally my protective walls are diversions, jokes and insults. This is me just deciding to stop. I wish I could do that more often.
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