Title page: Emily — Retreat Center Director

I’m becoming a sheep farmer. Right now I’m a total fraud:
once you meet sheep farmers you see how much there is to learn.
It began with an email I received from Leonard saying he
was interested in the idea of dual personalities, or people’s
view of themselves versus how they are seen by the world.
In his previous photographic series, Shekhina and The Full
Body Project, he had very definite ideas of what he wanted
to bring to the table as he posed and molded his subjects.
But what if Leonard allowed the subjects to direct their own
images? To show the side of themselves that no one knew, or
perhaps the half of themselves they were searching for. “I’m
particularly looking for people to surprise me and possibly
themselves,” he wrote. “To reveal a secret self. I’d like to ask
them, ‘Who do think you are?’”

Leonard’s instructions were minimal. “The ‘self we
keep hidden from others and ‘the self we would really like
to be’ might be one and the same,” he suggested. “I leave
it to the subjects to decide what they want to show to the
camera. I hope the title is open enough to encourage broad
interpretation.”

— Richard Michelson, R. Michelson Galleries,
Northampton, Massachusetts

back 
next page