Close Up: Portraits
























All by Martin Schoeller.

Portraiture is the best kind of photography. I love the idea of having a tiny flat with a ginormous photograph of an old man's face who you don't know in a frame on the wall in the hall... and talking to him like you know him: thinking you've cracked it, you know him better than anyone who's ever seen that photograph does, probably better than his own family. The photographer wanted to be suggestive, letting us see this man, his wrinkles making it look like he's had a long and fruitful life, not without it's mishaps but wonderful all the same. But highlighting his eyes that remind us that however much you look you won't find anything there because you don't truly know him after all. But you long forget the mystery of it. You name him like you'd name a pet, ask him if he's seen your keys when you can't find them, say goodnight to him occasionally, scowl him when he looks disapprovingly when you bring the party home late or order a take-away three nights in a row, talk to him when you're pissed. It's the greatest idea anyone's had ever.