In Your Eyes

I've mentioned before (though not often, as it's not a frequent occurrence) how much I like seeing how another person captures me in the camera lens. I'm intimately familiar with how I look posing in front of my own camera, and I like the high level of control it affords me over the creative process (in spite of its great limitations).

You'd think it wouldn't make much difference who's behind the camera, because what you're seeing in the frame is the same thing, but anyone with even a little experience with photography will know the ocean of difference that can exist between two people looking at the same scene, applying their own perspective, equipment, talent, and experience to capturing a shot. After all, a famous photographer once said that a photograph is a document of a relationship - the relationship between the model and the photographer.

I've long said that I wished I could make friends with some photographers, so I could have people at hand in casual, spontaneous situations to take pictures of me - situations where it's awfully difficult for me to set up a self-portrait, and which, as a result, haven't really been documented in my self-portrait photography. But I'm a bit of a recluse, and as such, I have only one person that hangs out with me a lot, who on rare occasions (she is, unfortunately, not a shutterbug by nature) feels inspired to take my picture.

Not being as experienced as me, the composition and framing of those pictures is not always up to my impossibly high standards, and I don't like not having complete control over my posing and, ultimately, how my body looks, but every now and then a shot will come out that resonates with me, and I'm always fascinated by the things I've never been able to capture in my own self-portraits - that casual, spontaneous feel; the real, unposed emotions; and those non-tripod-friendly angles. These are just a few fairly recent examples:

Copyright notice: The photographer and I have an agreement whereby I am the custodian of her copyright for purposes of online publication (although I have no desire to claim credit for them) on pictures she's taken of me, since I am a semi-professional model and photographer with a brand and a web presence, and she is not (and has no real desire to be).