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Videograph Portraits

A continuing project (2005-)

Description:  LCD flatscreen behind a standard photographic matte embedded in a picture frame.   The flatscreen is activated by laptop computer components that are also embedded in the frame.   Dimensions: 16"x20"x4".

Statement:

The videograph project was originally conceived as a reaction to the inherent sterility of digital artwork.   Although digital art can be fascinating technologically, it generally lacks presence of the artist.   For this reason it often fails to move a viewer emotionally and the communication between the artist and viewer is missing.  

Exploring a solution to this dilemma, the first set of videographs began as moving portraiture.   Subjects were asked to look into the camera lens and stare at their reflection in the glass.   They were then asked to look at this reflection and focus on the love that they feel for themselves, their blessings and accomplishments, the beauty in their own image.     Simply, they were asked to look upon their reflection with love.   The videos that were recorded during these moments were then processed into seamless loops and displayed on flatscreens embedded in standard picture frames, borrowing from the aesthetic of standard portrait photography.   As the viewer stands in front of the video portrait confronting the moving image, they are looked upon with love as it emanates from the subjects eyes and face.   Although the viewer is a stand-in for the subject's own reflection, the love is real nonetheless.   

Upon reflection, I realized that I had lifted a moment from one time, only to play it in another, as if it were still occurring.   The moving portraiture grows ever more interesting with age, as the subjects grow to look less and less like the videograph portrait.