Oft-imitated but unclonable photographer Bart Nagel posted examples of his ongoing "a/symmetry" portrait series. I hope on my next visit to Bart's studio he'll reveal the deep-seated secrets hidden by my misaligned ears and screwy smile! Bart writes:
Life is coded in the face; experience is expressed through variation in the features. Dissecting and mirroring a person's face can reveal interesting luggage — even left baggage.
For this series, subjects are photographed in the studio with a symmetrical lighting configuration. They attempt to keep their heads plumb, level, and square. Later, in Photoshop, the frame is duplicated and flipped horizontally: the left side of the face is matched to the copied left side, and the right side to the right. Three options are then presented, including the unaltered original. Often, distinctly different personalities are revealed — a skeptic, perhaps, and an optimist; an introvert and his evil doppelgänger; a moonshiner and a drifter.
