IN CONVERSATION
In Conversation begins with curiosity, not a shot list, of people I want to know better, invited into the studio simply to talk. The camera stays down for most of the sitting. Nothing is staged; no pose or expression is directed. What gets photographed is whatever surfaces unprompted in the course of an ordinary conversation; caught rather than arranged, and never repeated for a better take. The portrait, when it comes, belongs as much to the sitter as to the making of it.
I have known Mario since I was 16, so that is quite a while ago. Recently we re-connected and it is like we have never left one another’s lives. I wanted to capture him and this is our conversation.
When I started photography Joe was my mentor and till this very day I still consider him so. When he asked me to shoot his portrait, I was nervous but also humbled. This is what came out. Thanks to Ian Abdilla for his assistance in the studio.
