Society today places a premium upon individuality. A person´s value is often based, rightly or wrongly, upon their ability to develeop and communicate a distinctive persona. I documet peoples´ persnae via the visual elements they use, consciously or not, to characterize their personality, be they the way they dress and accessorize themselves or the way they display their bodies. As Frank Zappa once said, we´reall wearing uniforms, wether we exposed in crisp, clear detail – but I also let my subjects remain hidden behind the fragile constructions that are their own identities.

They are usually aware of their picture being taken – they turn toward the camera and keep quiet. Still, there is an element to their presence thich seems paradoxically to be more of an absence. Put another way, they appear to be double, as if their being was not a proof of reality, but rather a sign of their desire for it. They seem to be dreaming themselves into existence.

Photography has long been the media used to mediate between these senses of presence and absence. Pherhaps this is the reason why people of western cultures are so susceptible to the lens pointed at them; they know that they will never be again what they are now, as they are also aware of the utter transitoriness of each moment. They see, as their picture is being taken, both their past and present selves.