John with his Eyes Closed

Gary Schneider makes large-scale photographic portraits, using an interactive and personal approach. His rather unearthly images are the result of extremely close-up, almost claustrophobic long exposures - in this case, of one of his favorite subjects, his partner John Erdman. Referred to as "durational portraits," Schneider's photographs are inspired in part by the living, breathing quality and evocative blur he admired in nineteenth-century studio portraits by artists such as Julia Margaret Cameron. To create this intimate, death mask-like portrait of Erdman, the photographer meditatively played a beam of light over his friend's face throughout a protracted sitting in the dark.