I feel like my photographic vision resides in a couple of different worlds.
I like photos that tell me something about the subject, what they do, what they’re passionate about, anything that encourages me to think about their journey. Seeing other’s struggles and successes encourages us to keeping moving forward, exploring, reaching higher on our own paths.
On the other hand, I also like to make photographs where the subject is really an object; a humanizing source of line and form that in a fundamental way, every person can relate to. What they do and who they are doesn’t really matter, just that they are and that they represent humanness. One of the reasons I like to shoot dancers is that these two concepts often intersect. Dancers represent craft, dedication, struggle and artistic expression, while also using the most basic canvas, one that all of us own, to create lines and forms, to defy gravity, to connect ourselves to ourselves and with one another, the human body.
My shoot with dancer, Lisa Kwak is no different. The concept is simple: to contrast the lines of flowing, baggy, chaotic, oversized clothing with the defined, organic lean lines of the human form. Because what Lisa does is amazing, we are in awe of her ability, can see her dedication and appreciate that although most of us can’t do what Lisa does, Lisa, a person, can. And that says so much, not only about Lisa, but about the potential of every person.
