Work

Martin Schoeller

This exhibition showcases Close Up and Portraits: two different series that have been taken over the last 25 years.

A photographic close-up is perhaps the purest form of portraiture, creating a confrontation between the viewer and the subject. In my Close Up series, the impact stems largely from the static subject's expression or apparent lack thereof. The viewer is challenged to read a face without the benefit of the environmental cues we naturally use to form our interpersonal reactions.

I have always loved photographs that are revealing and whimsical. The images in which I place a subject in a carefully selected and framed environment represents a big departure from Close Up. In my series, Portraits, the images require a delicate and conceptual balance between wit and potentially desperate, high-concept excess. I do my best to conceive of a setting that complements or at least alludes to the subject’s professional field or personality without overstatement. This is the genre in which I can be the most playful with technical variation, as I attempt to underscore or illuminate something fundamental about the subject.