For this project, I took, what I am calling, face to face portraits of my friends. All of these portraits were taken during a FaceTime call, a liminal space between closeness and distance, that to a certain extent, is able to bend reality.
These connections, these portraits are real, but they are also imaginary. They are virtual portraits, not just digitals ones, in which the distance between the camera and the subject is not just a few feet, but thousands of miles. However, at the same time, the image lies in the palm of my hand and is captured in that same palm with a screenshot. How can an image be so close, but also so far away? How can I make a portrait of a friend when I cannot be physically with them? How do I maintain a friendship and a connection?
This human connection via portraiture is what I wanted to make real.
Hey Frances, I enjoy the deeper message that you conveyed in these virtual “face-to-face portraits”. I think it is fascinating that we hold things like our phones every day, and take for granted at times the accessibility of things like “facetime” but during times like this, we realize the desire for closeness when we are forced to be apart. I love that each image appears to capture the essence or parts of the relationship you have with each person and I think this idea is thought-provoking in many ways. Would you consider continuing the ways you maintain relationships without a face-to-face connection or any themes of distance in the fututre?
I love how much your project and photographs makes us think about our relationships with other people in the past, present, and future. That we might have taken for granted seeing someone everyday in the past but now in the present all we can do is FaceTime and text to stay connected and maintain relationships. The even harder part in our current situation is not knowing what the future will hold. We have no way of knowing when we will see our friends and loved ones next and it may be months until that then. I also think it is interesting to see the different emotions you and your friends have in each photograph, as it adds to the question on how different people are reacting and adjusting to being away from their friends.
Hi Frances, I like how your project highlights this idea of what technology means in our lives, especially in the state the world is right now. A lot of times, we take for granted the luxury of having a cell phone with the capabilities our cell phones have today. Phones help us stay in contact with others, but Facetime helps maintain relationships, not in the same way as continuing those relationships in person. But it allows us to see friends and family still, even if it is virtually. I think the last photo highlights the limitations that Facetime. We still have to wait for the person on the receiving end to answer or be disappointed when they do not. I think it was necessary to include one of you waiting for someone to answer.
Hey Frances, I think the concept you chose to pursue here is interesting especially in a time where all we have is our devices to communicate with each other. I wonder if you told everyone that you were taking a picture which I assume you did based off of some people’s smiles but I think it would be interesting to catch people off guard. This idea highlights how far we feel from people but also how close we are through a screen. I think this project is able to capture what daily life is for us and many of us can relate to relying on things such as Facetime to get our social interaction from.