Appalachia (Working People series) 1981

This photograph, part of Milton Rogovin’s “Working People” series, is like a slice of life, a glimpse into someone's world. I imagine Rogovin stepping into this home, camera in hand, and capturing this moment of a woman and child on a sofa. There's an honesty here; a rawness that reminds me of certain documentary painters who try to capture social realism. I find myself wondering about the relationship between the photographer and his subjects; it has intimacy to it, but is it invasive? Rogovin probably had a long and interesting career, meeting different people and seeing different environments. He took a lot of portraits, didn’t he? Well, I’m a portraitist too; the way we choose to present people – how they sit, how they hold themselves and pose – can say so much. Like Rogovin, the best portraitists don’t just point the camera; they engage in a deep human exchange.