Eyes & stories

A good portrait is all about the eyes and what they say. It’s the eyes that define the person— tell the loves and the disdains, the joys and the sorrows, the emotions and the barriers. It’s the eyes that draw us or push us away. Sometimes that means a portrait may not even show the eyes, but that, too, tells a tremendous story about the person. The eyes are, truly, the window to the soul. Which is why just one well-made portrait “can accomplish the same thing that 100 hours of documentary work, reveal a person’s true character.” (Scott Strazzanta, Chicago Tribune)

Portraits are my work. I spend my days storytelling with my camera, in a similar way that photojournalists spend their days storytelling with their cameras. The difference is that I tell about the person’s soul, and the role of the photojournalists is to tell the story of the context in which the soul lives. They both have a vital role in the world of stories. But they are very different.

What story do you tell? What story do your eyes tell?