Couples

For this series of couples portraits, I use antique lenses with shallow depths of fields, with only a narrow plane of the image in focus (often just the eyes). With couples, this means they must be nearly in line with each other, leading to sometimes awkward results, but also to complex relationships between the bodies of the two individuals. The exposures are quite long, as many as 30 seconds or so. In order to stay still for the duration of the exposure, they must lean into each other, using one another for support. These are portraits of individuals as much as they are of couples. They stare at us through the lens, but we are barred from the private life of the couple, just as there is ultimately a private world never fully known even to the partner. I'm not sure it is possible to photograph love, but a photograph can potentially reveal a couple's stability, their ease with each other and an understanding of one another that comes through in the way they hold each other.