"Relationships are stronger when you're best friends first, and a couple second."
- Unknown
What is a couple? Why do two people form a union? This ongoing series is a visual exploration of couples I meet by chance on the street and who agree to be photographed. We make some small talk, I briefly explain the project, and ask them three questions:
Can I take a photograph of you both?
What are your first names?
How long have you been a couple or married?
I take two photographs, a couple, and use film so the subjects can not see the images immediately after. No posing is done besides having them stand in front of the camera, they can simply be themselves together.
For this series I am exploring the use of spontaneous unplanned portraits and looking at the dynamics of couples. Will the awkwardness of doing something quick and unexpected reveal something more about a subject? Can we really come to know anything more about these couples, or couples in general, from looking at the individual images? Or will examining the body of work as a whole reveal something about why we couple or why we don’t?
Black and white film is used as a metaphor for the dynamics of a couple, as film is not just made up of black and white but shade of grey. Just like things are not always black and white in a couple’s relationship, they are more often than not shades of grey, versions of the truth, rights and wrongs, and perspectives.
