I liked these quotes from Isabel Allende when I read her book, “A Portrait in Sepia.” Of course, What is Art? is a broad question, and new forms of art are constantly being explored, and expressed by artists. If you are a photographer, do you feel the search with your camera is a spiritual endeavor, a creation of truth and beauty? In what ways do other fleeting forms of reality consist, outside traditional norms? On portraits, I believe Allende has a dynamic point of view. Do you like to shoot portraits of friends, family, and strangers? What makes a portrait more than just a snapshot, legit in its way.?
Two quotes by Isabel capture her interpretation of photography as an art form.
The camera is a simple apparatus. Even the most inept can use it. The challenge lies in creating with her that combination of truth and beauty which one calls art. That search is above all spiritual. I look for truth and beauty in the transparency of a leaf in autumn, in the perfect form of the snail on the beach, in the curve of a feminine shoulder, in the texture of an old tree trunk, but also, in other fleeting forms of reality.
Upon making a portrait, one establishes a relation with the model, if only very brief, there is always a connection. The plate reveals not only the image, but also the feelings which flow between them.
Portrait in Sepia (2000) by Isabel Allende
Here is a portrait I made in 2015, called A Security Guard in Senegal.
On Tiffany Creek 