"Cheryl" by Jesse Dittmar
I completed quick portrait sessions with each of these women: a few of which I met through the internet, and others being previous acquaintances. Each woman sat from thirty-minutes to a few hours with her own reasons for participating in this series of portraits. Many of these women walked into the studio confident, others self-conscious, and a few intrigued or uncertain. The experience impelled me to hone in and respond to many different personality types placed in similar situations.
Under each photograph is a short description of information I learned about each woman.
Throughout this project, and my other experiences as a photographer, I have learned portraiture is a farce; it is representation through misrecognition. Photographs show a momentary and edited persona, which is inseparable from the subject, but can never encompass its whole. Photography inherently creates a world where it is difficult to differentiate images from the real people they represent. For me, photographs, in time, will end up replacing what I know about the subjects they depict.
- Jesse Dittmar