Day 344

344/365, a photo by Aaron LaRue on Flickr.

This is Jane.
 

She is pretty friggin' hip. She's really into comedy, especially improv, so when I asked her what she wanted to do for her picture, she immediately said she wanted to do something androgynous and Buster Keaton-esque. We came across a really cool multiple exposure of Keaton and I knew right away we had found our inspiration. 


I like this picture for three reasons. First, it's of Jane, and I love Jane. Second, I love experimenting, and trying to figure out a good way to shoot this in camera was fun. I ended up using one flash and triggering it twice during one long exposure (about 3 seconds if I remember correctly) and it worked perfectly. But most of all, I think this pose has a lot going on if you think deeply about it. Performers have to separate their private life and their public life. You have to step outside of your self and enter a different headspace. For someone like Keaton, his onscreen personality ended up dictating his personal life. He grew up as a vaudeville performer, and Jane enlightened me to the fact that when he was a kid, he wasn't allowed to smile because it would ruin his act. How a performer juggles those two parts is a really interesting thing to watch. But for someone like Jane, the picture takes on a different meaning. It's more about self-consciousness and self-doubt. Anyone who practices an art (myself included) questions themselves, whether or not what their doing is good, viable, or even worth it. It's hard to learn how to tap into your emotions, let alone expose them to a crowd or a camera. It's an arduous internal process, and I think this picture hints at that. 


Thankfully Jane doesn't have to worry too much, because she's ridiculously funny. I can't wait to see what she does in the next few years. Now if only I could get her to write me a script....