talking heads

The process of photographing is a bizarre game in which the person being photographed takes a posing posture as soon as a lens focused on it. From a preemptive impulse, the person transforms into a symbol. At the same time the person becomes the one to whom it gives itself, to the one for which it wants to be kept, and to the one for which it's held by the photographer. While photographing a subject mimics itself constantly what evokes a strange sense of imposture.*

But not only the photographed person, also the photographer becomes impostor when he gets involved in this bizarre game and allows that his model strikes the posing posture and he even lets himself be tempted into it.

If the photographer wants to prevent this, he must recollect of the underlying values of the mechanic of photographing process, especially of the velocity with which a photo could be taken. Another strategy is to let the photographed person act as an active one, so that it could be hard to get the opportunity to solidify into a pose.

The simplest and the most fundamental method as well, is to talk. The seclusion of a photo studio creates an intimate situation, which is essential for accurate monitoring of the photographed person. A conversation intensifies this additionally and creates a connection between the model and the photographer. If that succeeds, we could be able to catch a short view into the personality of the portrayed individuals. And it can happen that suddenly also the images, the heads get in touch with each other, just as if they had even started to talk.

* cf. Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida: Reflexions on Photography

Exhibited for the first time Mai 2007