What happens when in front of the camera - like Barthes refer in his Lucida Camera - what is so fascinating in photography and in portraits especially, is the many layers juxtaposed - and the non visual info it conveys, willingly or not, consciously or not - the beauty of the complexity of all these moments who merge when someone takes our portrait: in a fraction of second a voluntary or involuntary decision has to be made, before the shutter goes off: we are faced with the heavy responsibility of the attempt of how to present ourselves to others, the infinite, the forever ( as still, photography is seen as a potential media in which we have access to overcome our death and prolong beyond that our presence ).
The layers merge at the time of the shutter, more or less truthful, dyslexic, poetic or harsh, in a assertive or clumsy way. The final image is always going to be a juxtaposition of: who we are ( many times not without discontent ), who we would like to be, who we can be - in the end always a personal image of true conveyed trough a more or less see trough curtain of lies, illusions, aspirations and fears.
The complexity of identity and validation, the torture of vanity, the timeless certainty of photography.
