Frank
"I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious" - Albert Einstein
I made these three portraits to show the real, messy fun of eating—way more than just a nice pic of food. I wanted to capture how food makes you feel, not just what it looks like.
The first photo (with the box of bones) sets the mood: the bright ceiling light feels super casual, like someone just crushed a big meal and doesn’t care about being tidy. It’s not “pretty”—it’s just real.
The second pic (black-and-white with the single bite) pops the food in color so it stands out. The dark background and close-up make it feel like you’re right there with them, hungry and ready to dig in. The plastic glove and wet table make it feel like a normal, unplanned moment.
The third photo (the huge bite) is all about chaos: wide mouth, crinkled eyes, messy gloves. The dim, warm light makes it feel like a late-night snack where you stop worrying about being “nice” and just enjoy. I wanted it to feel energetic—like you can almost hear the crunch.
These aren’t perfect portraits. They’re about catching the truth of a moment: the mess, the hunger, and the simple happiness of eating something you love.
For these two photos, I wanted to make portraits that aren’t just “pictures of a person”—I wanted to show energy and personality using double exposure and lighting.
The first shot uses a slow camera shutter and blue/amber lights to blur the subject a little. It’s not a crisp, still photo because I wanted to capture how they move, not just how they look. The “K” and “G” on their jacket stand out, so even with the blur, you can tell it’s their style.
The second photo layers two versions of the same person (lit with blue and orange lights that clash). I did this to show that people aren’t just one thing—we have different sides that overlap, like how you might feel calm one minute and hyped the next. The dark background keeps all the focus on them and the colors, so the mix of their two “looks” feels intentional.
I didn’t want these to be boring, standard portraits. I wanted them to feel like a vibe—like you can sense the subject’s energy, even if the photo isn’t perfectly sharp.
Rey Contreras is this artist from Mexico City who does these really cool portraits where he projects crazy patterns and stuff right onto people’s skin. His big project is called Layers of Being, and it’s basically like he’s turning people into living, breathing art pieces with light. He says he gets a lot of his ideas from this other artist, Hiroshi Sugimoto, who is famous for taking super simple but powerful photos of the sea and theaters. Contreras is inspired by how Sugimoto’s photos feel timeless.
What I think is so interesting is how Contreras’s work is all about identity. It’s like he’s showing what a person might look like if you could see all their memories, feelings, and influences from the outside, all mixed together with colored light. It makes you wonder where the real person ends and the projection begins, or if they just become something totally new together.
1. Old Guy Reading by the Lake
2. Beijing Snack Street
3. Black-and-White Card Game Pic
4. Playing Cards Outside
5. Shared Bikes on the Street
6. Two People Sitting by the Willows
7. Boat on the Lake
8. Street Vendor at a Heritage Stall
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Final
Reflection
After editing these photos, I was amazed by how the black-and-white tones and textures brought out the details and emotions. Even though my work doesn’t copy the exact style and composition of my reference artist, it shows my own take on this place and its people, letting me capture the daily lives of folks in this area with a strong local and cultural feel.
At first, I was nervous that people might not want me to take their pictures, especially when they were just being themselves in everyday moments. But it turned out that most people were so focused on what they were doing—riding bikes, playing cards, or going about their work—that they hardly noticed the camera. This let me take photos of them naturally, from close by, and created a quiet, genuine feel in the images.
In the first image, an uncle with his bike passes by a willow tree, lost in his own journey, unaware of being photographed. In the second image, uncles are fully into a game of cards in the park, their expressions and movements showing pure enjoyment, not caring about anything else around them. In the last image, a worker goes about his cleaning, while others in the background are either exercising or taking photos, each in their own world. These moments I captured show exactly what I wanted: people living their lives authentically, in their own little bubbles, making the photos feel real and full of life.
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