Diane

I don't like it when a photographer, or someone who might appreciate photography, blathers on about "capturing the soul", or how you must really get to know your subject thoroughly in order to make a truly great portrait of them. Whatever. Getting to know your subject never hurts, but I know from experience that it's possible to create or even capture a superb portrait without ever exchanging a word. Indeed, I actually appreciate when there's the welcomed occurrence of working with someone without saying much— mutual intuition or instinct at work! I would never pretend that one of my images could sum up a person— whether their life, or personality, or essence. People are not that two-dimensional. I tend not to be interested in such impossibilities, but instead I try to focus on the very real possibility of creating a fascinating persona. In fact, I find the opportunity to create a perhaps false, yet compelling identity a more interesting endeavor, anyway...

Ivy

Mirror Games.

Ramonita

Don't let the left hand know what the right hand is doing...

Abstracts Anonymous

I tend to cringe at the idea that my photographic abstractions might look like mistakes, or amateurish, or seem like I'm just trying to play with a lame image to make it more "interesting". I try to always keep those three things in mind as a cautionary checklist, so as to make sure that my images don't look like that. Which means that I toss out a lot. Which is fine, because it is actually quite hard to make a successful abstract photograph. There is one final thing that I typically try to do with abstracts, and that is making sure that there is at least some little part of the image that is in some way recognizable. I like to throw the viewer a bone— because I know that if there is at least something of relatable interest to zero in on, the rest will follow...

Edith

"In short, Beauty is everywhere. It is not that she is lacking to our eye, but our eyes which fail to perceive her. Beauty is character and expression. Well, there is nothing in nature that has more character than the human body. In its strength and its grace, it evokes the most varied images. One moment it resembles a flower: the bending torso is the stalk; the breasts, the head, and the splendor of the hair answer to the blossoming of the corolla. The next moment it recalls the pliant creeper or the proud and upright sapling."  ~Auguste Rodin

"Recently I have taken to isolating limbs, the torso. Every part of the human figure is expressive."  ~Auguste Rodin