Primitive Behavior - Chapter 3

"Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not the sitter. The sitter is merely an accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the coloured canvas, reveals himself." Oscar Wilde "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (London 1891) Chapter One.

As I head out to the dunes in Provincetown to write this third and final chapter, the burden of creativity and responsibility weigh heavily on my mind. The war is still raging, my friends are dying and I am left to mourn and document. Again, my models serve as my angels leading me by the hand to find the courage to continue.

For the first time in this series my camera focuses on the face. Along with these documents, comes the long history of portraiture and compelling issues surrounding the artist and model; the artist, model and viewer; and therefore human original and art object. As Richard Brilliant states in his book Portraiture, "the oscillation between art object and human subject represented so personally, is what gives portraits their extraordinary grasp on our imagination." My relationship with my models is predisposed, there is no conflict and the photographs are made in the most collaborative manner. These photographs are from my imagination.

As I sit with my models in the dunes, I studied their faces, place them in a position and ask them to close their eyes, a gesture to simulate sleep, perhaps eternal sleep. Again, I become a combat photographer documenting the devastations of war. With the camera now fixed on the soldier's faces, the issues of loss and mortality become paramount. This assertion of identity, the photograph, is an affirmation of existence, an existence that is most fragile. This assertion of identity is an affirmation of loss. Loss that can now be processed on an individual level, a basic yet important first step in allowing me to find my way through this fight.

Over the course of this war, and more specifically over the course of this project my issues around intimacy, sex, and mortality have become inseparable. My models have become objects, beautiful to observe yet untouchable. This distance sometimes reinforces my fears; fears of sex, fears of intimacy, fears of losing control and ultimately fears of my own mortality. Yet now I approach these fears with a richness, understanding and courage I never dreamed possible.

These photographs are documents of inspiration.

Frank Yamrus
Summer 1996