11/15/2025
Paul Caponigro, creator of memorable photographs of humans and the human condition, once said “It’s one thing to make a picture of what a person looks like; it’s another thing to make a portrait of who they are.” This is no easy undertaking.
Jean-Luc Godard observed that “when you photograph a face * * * you photograph the soul behind it."
Edward Steichen said that “the mission of photography is to explain man to man and each to himself. And that is the most complicated thing on earth.”
Caponigro, Godard, Steichen.
Consider Joyce Tennyson’s thoughtful summation:
“I seek what lies beneath surface beauty. What interests me are intimate human complexities – the darkness as well as the light. I cannot will this kind of transcendent communication into existence. I have to be open and truly present, and if I am lucky, grace descends. My best photographs are an honest collaboration, and when the viewer also connects, I feel the circle is complete.”
"Portraits" can be made in a wide variety of settings, not just formal portraits where there is an intent to "portray" through some degree of mutual exchange between subject and photographer. "Variety" occurs from the context of time, place, mission and the human activity of the moment. "Context," in anything in life, is important, and that is no less true with Tennyson's "what lies beneath" insight into photographic "portrayals" of life - or even life as mediated first by another artist, such as a sculptor.,
“The Soul Behind It,” photographic portraits made by John Erickson over some 60 years of photography, and in some instances (where noted) the portraiture photography of others, follows.
“Michael” (2018)
