Michael Byron 1986

This is a black and white photograph by David Robbins, and it's an image of someone called Michael Byron. Robbins is a conceptual artist, so with a work like this, I imagine him considering the relationship between the portrait and the idea of celebrity. What makes a star a star? I can imagine him thinking about what conventions make a portrait feel "official" or "successful." The image has that clean, commercial quality of a headshot, but who is Michael Byron? It's like the photo is waiting for its celebrity to catch up. I feel Robbins is playing with that tension. I wonder if he considered what portrait painters did for centuries, creating and burnishing an image of fame. Here, Robbins is asking, what happens when the fame is potential, or even missing? It's like he is turning the tables on portraiture, and I like that a lot.