They say babies start out life drawn to human faces. I know I certainly am.
As a photographer, faces I see in my daily life haunt me. I think, “How could I convince that person to let me take their picture, without appearing to be a creep?” As an introvert, I find approaching strangers to be daunting. But I do want to connect.
But even if I do get their picture, I fret about what to do with it. I was at the Chilhuly exhibit the other day, and I as interested in watching my fellow shutterbugs as I was in viewing the glass. I enjoyed scoping out the photographic gear, but I kept thinking, “What are these people going to do with all their pictures?”
I hadn’t even brought my camera, because I knew having the pictures would just leave me frustrated. Art for art’s sake. Not for me.
So my plan is to carry my camera for 2011 and see what a year brings in portraits of people in Nashville. I hope people will want to download and keep their pictures, but I’m not even really sure about that. I don’t particularly care about having pictures of myself. Hopefully, I’m an outlier.
My larger goal is to document the richness of so many souls who walk beside me every day. Maybe when I’m done with taking portraits for a whole year, I’ll simply be glad to stop lugging my gear around. But I hope I’ll capture some of the magic that is Nashville and bottle it in moments. That, indeed, would make me happy.
Thanks for looking!
Carter Andrews
January 1, 2011