Faces #7 1998

Vibeke Tandberg made this photograph, Faces #7, dimensionally modest in its frame, but visually it seems as large as a wall! It's a pretty straightforward portrait, but the figure’s expression complicates things. She's smiling, but it feels a little bit tense, as if the artist has caught her off guard. The natural light makes her skin look almost translucent, like a painting. It’s as though the camera has stumbled upon a moment of self-awareness. I wonder what Tandberg was thinking when she pressed the shutter? Were they friends? It is a very intimate act, taking someone's photograph. There is a vulnerability to it. It’s interesting how artists play with the boundary between the staged and the spontaneous. The picture captures a quiet, reflective moment, but perhaps the artist was trying to achieve something more. As an artist you always want to make something new, even if you have to trick yourself into seeing it.