Señorita (Patreon)

I've kinda fallen in love with this image. Inspired by the set I posted recently, this is a re-creation of the first shot, with one (or two!) noticable difference/s.

It's funny how things like this work out. I would never have taken this image, except that a dear friend shared their inspiration. I got inspired too, added a flair to it, and a beautiful feedback loop of art took place. It's the kind of thing that turns out to be very refreshing, that recharges the creative batteries. I live for that kind of stuff. And, in this case, it resulted in one of my very favorite self-portraits.

So, to the picture itself. When I slapped a filter onto it, all of a sudden, the image that resonated with me was that of a poster that you might find on the streets of Madrid back in the '20s, advertising for some bullfight. Somebody noted that it looks like a particularly sultry loteria card. That it was relaxed, but had a tenseness to it...

This same friend and I were talking the other day about art, as we so often do, and the topic turned around to photography. One of us mentioned that the photographer Philippe Halsman said that portrait is more about the photographer than it is about the subject — that the subject is a canvas that the photographer uses as a repository for his or her own perceptions and experiences. What, then, is the personality that eeks through when the photographer and the subject are one and the same? And then, what happens when that work is interpolated into something else?

The jury is still out. But that's the nature of these kinds of things. For some, this picture might be a statement on some grand and glorious aspect of the human experience. Maybe it's a middling of elements between two poles. Or, still, it might just be a picture of a brunette with big boobs. Maybe I'll get lucky, and it's a mix of all these things! ☺️

In any case, I like it, and hope y'all don't mind if I share.