I met her while shooting street photographs. She had been in the city only 6 days so she decided to come along to explore the city. We became so comfortable around each other it felt like we had been friends for years! This picture was taken at a live gig later that night. It was interesting to see her from a perspective different from the funny, crazy girl I had hung out with all evening.
In a world that bombards us with noise and encourages busyness, being alone in silence is rarely an option we even consider. Uncaptured explores the emotional and physical effects of conscious silence on the thoughts or memories that individuals might have shelved deep within themselves.
This project attempts to explore this using visual stories and fewer words.
This documentary started as a result of a street photographer's desire to translate his passion for candid street photos into studio portraits. One strategy to get the sitter to become real and relax in order to capture candid expressions was to pretend to press the shutter but then just hold, until the sitters lose their prepared expression. Only then, will he start to click away. This will usually result in a series of genuine smiles. This process eventually morphed into a motion portrait project that explored the range of emotions that we generate from our 'ready-face' to our 'candid-face'.
As the sitters continue to sit in silence beyond the candid phase, they moved into an even deeper place where all noise is turned off - leaving their minds uncaptured. In those moments, the sitter's thoughts could be seen right on their faces. It subtly reminds us to take note of the flood of nonverbal and sometimes unconscious facial messages that beg to be noticed in our everyday interactions.
From the sitter's perspective, as they let silence guide them, they have an unexpected opportunity to uncovered something new about themselves.