Intimacy

When I take photos, I always think myself are doing a job of recording the world around me. The final work depends on the actual, physical world—is it sunny today? Is this person happy or sad today? It probably dates back to the very original reason why I picked up my first camera: I wanted to take photos of the beautiful flower fields in the spring so that I can remember them.

This project, Intimacy, explores the subject in his/her/their comfortable space. Same place, similar outfits, different people give drastically different final images. I make decisions when I press the shutter. Otherwise, I create the set, looked for angles, and only gave brief directions in the beginning. The rest is somehow up to the subject. I fill in the parameters in the photo equation, and the subject completes the solution.

A big part of the project is the process and the communication. My memory about the shooting itself was fairly blur; I faintly remembered the conversation and the interaction, and the decision on framing, shutter speed, aperture all came from intuition. When I stared at contact sheet after developing, I felt the image had connection with the shooting day itself, yet it was almost telling a different story of the subject.

The word, intimacy, in some sense, is how the subject is like in the space-- the intimacy between themselves. And what the photographer portrays in such space—the intimacy between the photographer and the space. On another level, the process of creating the images is part of the intimacy as well.

金汉卿

2021.05

*This project is originally intended to be completed and presented in 100% analog format. All images are shot on medium format camera with Ilford B&W film, and printed in the Carnegie Mellon University darkroom. What is presented here is digital scans of the negatives. I formatted the digital photos and the paper to make it look like what they are in in-person presentation.

Part 1