artist statement
All portraits are relational. There is an exchange that occurs between the photographer and the subject; a very profound and intimate exchange that requires both parties to give something of themselves. As the photographer, I cannot capture what I want. I am required to put my desires to rest and exist only in the present moment with another.
And so the exchange occurs, the moment is captured, processed, and becomes timeless.
The ability to exist within that moment, and then relive those moments, conversations, and experiences that transpired, through the entire process of photography is what draws me to the medium. It is the quiddity of an isolated dark room, coupled with the eyes and faces of those who have given of themselves to participate in an undiscovered story which is writing itself as the process continues. Staring into the faces of hundreds of people that have made the exchange, and caring for them; fine-tuning the grain, adjusting the contrast, balancing the color, burning, dodging, printing, washing. The entire process that takes place in the dark, between I and Thou, again and again, is an essential part of the whole. It consummates the initial surrender and exchange.
This is why I take photographs. I don’t ever want to stop seeing. I don’t ever want to grow tired of moments.
-Gloria Anna M. Bernard
And so the exchange occurs, the moment is captured, processed, and becomes timeless.
The ability to exist within that moment, and then relive those moments, conversations, and experiences that transpired, through the entire process of photography is what draws me to the medium. It is the quiddity of an isolated dark room, coupled with the eyes and faces of those who have given of themselves to participate in an undiscovered story which is writing itself as the process continues. Staring into the faces of hundreds of people that have made the exchange, and caring for them; fine-tuning the grain, adjusting the contrast, balancing the color, burning, dodging, printing, washing. The entire process that takes place in the dark, between I and Thou, again and again, is an essential part of the whole. It consummates the initial surrender and exchange.
This is why I take photographs. I don’t ever want to stop seeing. I don’t ever want to grow tired of moments.
-Gloria Anna M. Bernard