Portrait of Jon at the Washington County Fair

I’ve never done it myself, but I’ve been at museums and seen people with easels and paint coping a painting.  This is what you do, in one way or another, when you admire an artist, you copy their work and eventually (hopefully)  it beings to morph into something unique to you.

That’s what I’m doing when I take those reflected and shadow self portraits.  I’m trying to copy Vivian Maier’s work.   And technically I know I’ll never get anywhere near Maier’s photographs.   But, luckily,  I’m not really interested in the technical part, I’m interested in the content.  Which makes it all much easier and much more fun.  I can just tap that button on my iphone and not have to worry about the rest.

I was actually trying to get a self portrait reflected in a puddle at the Washington County Fair when I took this picture of Jon.    A perfect portrait really, of him and his camera.  And I thought there was something noble in his posture, almost sculptural, like one of those bronzes you see in the town square.  There’s something painterly about it too in the soft edges and blurred features.   It turned out better than what I was trying to do.  Actually, I can’t even imagine intentionally trying to get a picture like this.  But then that’s usually how it works for me, the more I let go the better it is.