Can one portrait be a story?
I think one portrait can be a story. A picture that comes to my head is called “Easter Sunday.” It is a picture of my son sitting on the front stoop of the house super upset. He is in a tie. He has his vest on and nice pants, then, of course, he has tennis shoes on.
For me, that tells a story of my childhood because I remember my parents forcing us to dress up for Easter and take pictures. We just wanted to get the Easter eggs and candy, right? It takes me back to that time. For him, it was the same kind of thing. And I think that a lot of people identify with that image in terms of his facial expression and how set he is.
It tells a story not only about his story and about Easter in our family, but I think it tells other people’s stories because they can identify with it. They can think back to their own story and say, “Oh, wow, yeah, I remember when my mom made us dress up like this.”
One image can both tell a specific story in that context and who's in it, as well as help the viewer see another story – potentially one that is either in their own life, or a relative's life, or whoever. It can be two stories, essentially.
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