A thought is a very intimate place to be. A solitary place, you cannot possibly fully share with anyone else. The composition of this piece implies the subject is unaware of the viewer or photographer, as the subject is looking down away from the camera or audience, he appears to be essentially staring in to nothingness, lost within his own thought/world.
I wanted to try and portray an image that gave the viewer a porthole in to someone else’s world. Granting them the choice to feel either invited and enticed by the subject, or unwelcome, confronted by the image, as they invade the personal space of a stranger, scrutinizing them in their vulnerable state.
I explored this concept in the portrait of my Father, as I aimed to draw the viewer’s attention straight to his vacant, dark eyes, by focusing the majority of the detail within them and leaving the outskirts of the image vague. This is influenced by the work of Nathan Ford who paints with the notion, when a piece stops being ‘engaging I stop, because there is no reason to continue when the enthusiasm gone’.
Lucy.Southworth 