Inpired by the Poems of Blanca Varela and Alejandra Praznik: the Eyes of a Femme Fatale
I have always enjoyed portraiture photography. Not necessarily when meticulously posed, and often not representative of the personality behind the face, but the capturing of that relaxed moment between shots. In film photography, that means hoping to get one good portrait out of twelve frames on a medium format roll. Over time, I realised that what makes the portraits I like are the eyes of the person. Not their shape or colour (that is irrelevant since I only shoot B&W film) but how they express the persona. There are pragmatic eyes and looks; there are playful and inviting eyes; and there are eyes that look but cannot see why one has to be grateful. And, in a funny way, when I show my chosen photo to the subject, they often do not recognise themselves in that look. So, they opt for another, more posed shot, and I keep the one I like! In the past decade when I moved to the Southwest and learned about Native American painting style on animal skin, the portraits I paint ar...
