Tara Rynders is preparing for her MFA thesis show this spring and has asked me to photograph the event. In preparation, she needed an image made for promotional materials. She is earning her degree in dance, and her thesis deals intensely with intimacy. Tara asked me to approach this portrait with this notion and she was gallant enough to present herself as such.
With very little direction or guidance from me she posed for these images near her home. It was an exercise for me in bare-boned image making; in the execution and more so in the intention. I suspect all photographers struggle – or at the very least they debate – the dichotomy embedded in photography and the discipline’s polar natures. There are always conscious choices between truth and flattery, documentation and illustration, reporting and creating. Anyone who is an absolutist on either side of this conversation has more time and money afforded to them than I do.
With Tara on this afternoon, the mercury was nearing zero degrees. We stood in the waning afternoon and the shutter flapped in the cold like a one man audience applauding her. It was wasn’t much feedback for her, and I gave her even less. For me on this day, I let her show me what she was, and what her idea of intimacy was with the camera, the proverbial spectator. For me, I tried to strike a balance between how I wanted to see her and letting her be seen how she imagined herself – something I suspect we all struggle with – or at the very least they debate – in every interaction we have.
