As a photographer, I find myself comfortable behind the lens of my camera. There’s a certain vulnerability to allowing yourself to be photographed. My comfort level behind the camera far surpasses my comfort in front of the camera.
For this series I chose to develop a hybrid of traditional portraiture and traditional self-portraiture, the latter of which in my experience with photography is a highly underdeveloped craft.
By integrating myself into these portraits, I am reflecting the truth of the scene in which you are seeing. When looking at a portrait, you escape the reality you are seeing. You are presented with a portrait, and you accept it solely as so.
Through incorporation of my reflection in this series of portraits, I am revealing one of the most crucial details of the moment…myself. The scene in which you are used to seeing always includes the photographer taking the photograph, but always out of the frame. This is my way of presenting my own response to the image I am creating.
Corey Bienert
I decided for this week's post to deviate from the portraits I had been working on. So this photo comes out of my archive from Christmas break. Every year, my family spends part of Christmas Eve decorating cookies. However, there are no frosting bags or cookie decorating tools. The rules are simple, we can only use table knives (and toothpicks for the more creative of us). It is so fun to see our personalities come out in the cookies we make. We never make the same one, but it is often very obvious who made which cookie. I like this photo for the variety in unity. There are many different shapes, but they are held together by the common colors and accents on each cookie. I like the fact that although they are very different, put together, they create a sort of rhythm and pattern.
