Posture

I think being required to pose for my classmates has ingrained a completely different sense of myself--a posture, an awareness of what people are seeing when they look at me. It's awkward being watched, especially if you are anything like me. But then again, being surrounded by such talented people, after everything, I do enjoy seeing what they did see. It's not about feeling beautiful but more about learning how to work with gesture, emotion, and revealing a sense of myself to someone in a natural and ordinary way. This is what I want to attain whenever I photograph someone--to be able to discover qualities of them, a quietness and a touch of honesty that's theirs alone.

The best part of it is, I'm learning this valuable quality of seeing/being seen in a fun way because I'm with such dedicated friends. It's taught me how to step away from myself and think as an observer, see myself apart from the 'me' in front of the camera. Although sometimes I wonder how much a photographer should do to cause a reaction. I suppose it is a balance of things--of watching as closely as possible but at the same time not showing it and allowing the subject to feel comfortably "unwatched."

It was a Friday night and of course my friends and I decided to head back to school. It's week 9 and we have free use of the portrait and commercial (product/table top) studios. This is a photo that my good friend, Shaun took last night that I absolutely love.

We are taught to start with darkness and bring something to light. This is the joy of seeing.