Long Portrait – Jeff

I’ve been inspired by the long portraits of Clayton Cubitt on Vimeo. After I stumbled on his work, I found that photojojo did an article on the idea a while back, and there are quite a few others on Vimeo as well.

It is really amazing the stuff you can learn about someone by just watching them for a minute or two. You may not get specifics, or their life story, or their actual beliefs, but you do seem to get a great feel for the person. I’m intriqued at what these can be.

I imagine that 100 years from now people will be watching these the same way we look at old photos from a shoe box. I think it would wonderful to see my great grandfather or great great grandmother this way. They would be so much more real to me. It is really fascinating to think about. This is why I love portraits. Not only can they be great pictures and pieces of art, but they are a depiction of a real person, with real feelings, and real people in their lives.

This is Jeff. This is the normal portrait I took yesterday on our patio at our office.

Portrait of Jeff

This is the long portrait that I took the same time. I’m not sure what to say as I take these so I was totally silent. All I told him was I wanted a “long video portrait” and that he can do what he wants, but basically just stay in one place. You can see him be uncomfortable, smile, make faces, have confidence, then lose it again . . . it is kind of fun and disturbing to watch all at the same time.