Cheek To Cheek

This body of work aims to explore human closeness and act as a celebration of my connection with the people I interact with in my life. These 25 photographs include roommates, professors, coworkers, family of friends and my girlfriend, and students from the darkroom I don’t know. When these photos, all close up cheek to cheek portraits with me on the right side are placed together in a grid format, my hope is that the viewer starts to see patterns and starts to look for the stark differences in the person's face, and the subtle differences in face. By keeping my own expression consistent and neutral/deadpan, I hope that it acts as a baseline to contrast with everyone else’s various expressions and personalities. The choice of black and white over color was done with the intent to focus on the physical touching of the cheek as well as on the expressions of the faces rather than skin tone or setting. The heavy cropping into the face is done for the effect for the frame of the image to appear to be squeezing us closer together, and focuses the viewer entirely on the face and the contact.