Close Your Eyes

this portrait series was shot on 5x7inch paper negatives, using an old east german Mentor 5x7 field camera. 5x7 cameras have (by design) a rather limited field of depth. I like that a lot. with paper negatives, which work on a very low speed I had to shoot with an almost entirely open aperture. that was a challenge, as well as a blessing. the background became an out of focus thing in every possible aspect. I did not have to care about it at all. it was setting up the camera, measuring the light, focussing and shooting. first i intended to leave the paper negatives as they were, hence the closed eyes. open eyes look funny in the negative form. so "Close your eyes" was the only direction I gave to the people I photographed. however, when i checked what the negatives would look like as a positive, i was really taken away. it added so much to the already strong negative form of the image. so i decided to have them this way.