MY NAME IS JESSE RIESER
AND I AM A STUDENT OF SUBTLETIES.

I mean really, I’m from Missouri, and since I was 17, I've been a student of the human condition, looking through a lens, creating images filled with telling details and compelling characters.

I am drawn to photography because it tells stories through disclosure just as much as through omission. My work is an exploration of honesty. It’s about decision-making and details. It’s about viewpoint. It’s about hiding some things. And showing others.

The other element of photography I find so compelling is it's immediacy. Button pressed, moment captured. But that moment can take an hour, a day, a lifetime to happen, to create, to evolve. And anyone can press a button. But what I do is take a certain kind of photo. I engage with subjects. I understand and communicate with clients. I can see their vision through my own eyes. Some call it empathy. Some call it charm. My mom just says I’m a nice young man.

But back to those subtleties. They are different from details. Subtleties are the stuff of stories. They are the unexplained elements, the unobvious expression, the unclear artifacts. They are the lingering mysteries in the photo that refuse to reveal themselves to the viewer in the first three seconds. My work requires engagement. And it draws in the viewer, causing him to wonder about the subjects
and the stories they have to tell.