Face Landscapes

The point of the action is us, people. An act of observation. How we experience, with all our senses, people in every perceivable form.  How we experience us in a photograph, an abstract image, here in black and white.  How and how long would and could we stand in front of our own image?

These landscapes can tell us a totally different history or shine a light on an authenticity that can disappear in a moment; histories that we experience when we stand before a camera. What do we portray in our facial expressions? What do we want to share? What do we want to hold back and what is so precious that it is for us alone?

Voyeurism is by no means the intention of this project. It’s about our psyche, vanity, theatrical flair, history. What other people can see in our faces, what would be lost in abstraction, what is revealed? What message do we send through our eyes, through our facial expressions?

Each and every one of us is unique. How do we stand the fashions of the day, the dictations of industry? How dependent are we on norms and categorizing people?

It is and should be a loving view of us as individuals and not en masse. We should and can stand before a portrait to contemplate a person. In actuality nothing special and yet everybody is something special. We wander through this face landscape with our eyes wide open. We could stop at every curve and see in every furrow traces of time. We could sense what kind of stories lie behind these landscapes and what would change with the next rain or storm. What would be, when the sun shone, where would the shadows be? Are the shadows longer in winter and shorter in summer?

Nader Nobakhti-Afshar