One thing that a portrait often promises, is the idea of capturing a subject’s identity within the photograph. It is my belief that as a photographer, you cannot encapsulate a person’s true identity with a single image. As people have many layers and colours to their identities – so should their portraits. People are not black and white; they have layers and “colours” in between. Thus the title for this series. Shades of Grey, attempts to explore the idea that people have such depth to them that it takes multiple photos to fully represent who they are.
I decided to take the idea of identify one step further by asking subjects to provide an insight on how they feel looking at their images. A picture is worth a thousand words, but sometimes words can add such power when added to an image. Each subject was asked to look through their photos and pick one that they can identify with or find interesting. They were then asked to write down something, anything they wanted, to address their photo. Their signature and hand written statement was then overlaid onto their photo. This is identity. This is what makes a person, a person; their layers, their colours, their shades of grey.
I decided to take the idea of identify one step further by asking subjects to provide an insight on how they feel looking at their images. A picture is worth a thousand words, but sometimes words can add such power when added to an image. Each subject was asked to look through their photos and pick one that they can identify with or find interesting. They were then asked to write down something, anything they wanted, to address their photo. Their signature and hand written statement was then overlaid onto their photo. This is identity. This is what makes a person, a person; their layers, their colours, their shades of grey.