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6 comments:
well it is you. I do think this is a natural way of seeing yourself. simple, straight up, right on.
But the main feeling for me looking at this picture is; bad pass photo?
I'm curious to know what Derek and Zach are thinking. It's a photo of you, but is it a self-portrait? I'm just asking!
aw justin, i think this is great. its exactly how the world sees you.
i think it's great it looks like a surveillance camera footage still. It has great texture, modern texture cellphone camera texture -so there are still some new things to be working with. sorry but that's where we're at maybe. It even has a slight tinge of florescent light temp. It's truly modern.
Yeah, I have a mixed feeling on this one. On the one hand, my first impression each time I have looked at it has been what Dutch said, 'bad pass photo' and that it is a bit hard to overcome. On the other hand it is definitely what Jana said, 'it is exactly how the world sees you.' I think i lean that way, in that I enjoy looking at it because I see Justin in it, but at the same time feel sorry about it because of its poor quality (whether intentional or not).
I have to assume that the quality was intentional--that sharp banding and digital fuzziness (It stills beats our school IDs). Sure enough a million self-portraits similar to this one are being made every minute. And most of the time they are only useful to the subject. Passports or visas (which for some can be a life-changing image), cellphone captures at the bar, police surveillance images, CCTV stills. This type of lo-tech, high-volume face documentation has permeated our culture in countless ways. The only difference is that Justin knows how to qualify this image from an artists' perspective. He knows the difference between this and an Avedon (and the similarities). Having said that, and not know for certain what the intention was here, - does posting this image on a blog about photography instead of on a cell phone automatically elevate it above those other images? I don't know, but I'm glad its here.
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