Hide and Seek

These are just a few images from my studio II final, Hide and Seek. The series is an exploration of one of the strongest human emotions: crying. Crying is rarely photographed and always in a documentary style photograph. We pose people in the studio smiling without knowing if their happy, we pose them in serious positions, in candid funny expressions, but never crying.

In my life I have been a magnet to sad and lonely people. I can find out deep emotional thoughts about someone I just met that has taken them years to hide. Why? Why do these people find such a connection to me? Do they find me trustworthy? What words of mine put a spell to cast their heart upon mine? It becomes very frustrating at times because I become more of a therapist than a friend, lover, or companion. And sometimes I feel like they are just staring into a mirror when they look at me. How can I help them and listen to them when I have the exact same problem? Is not everyone sad and lonely?

The models in these images are not those who reveal themselves to me, but most of them I do not know very well. I wanted to see if I could bring that sense of emotional shock out of them. What I received was a hell of a lot more. There is a strong tension of the photographs between reality and the surreal posed studio effect. .... I like it. Hope you do to.

Oh and I still haven't figured out those questions by the way.