Safe Distance by Galina Kurlat

These portraits are intimate vignettes into the subjects' lives. They become as much about the process of making the images as the final photograph. In a relatively short time the sitter's anxiety falters and they begin to reveal an innermost self.

Although I choose the subjects based on an immediate instinctual connection, my familiarity with them varies. Some are close friends and lovers, others are strangers I have recently met. The slow, tenuous process of creating large format photographs, invite the sitter to orchestrate his or her own compositions. I do not direct the subjects, but allow them to move freely in the frame. Each gesture, conscious or not, informs the viewer. While the direction of the subjects' gaze becomes their choice to reveal or hide.

These photographs are made using Polaroid positive/negative, black and white film. The film is intended to be processed in a solution of sodium sulfite and water. In some of the images I choose to leave the emulsion on the negative, which will continue to degrade the image over time. Other negatives I process only partially to emphasize the different densities in the film. By deliberately manipulating some of these negatives while allowing others to degrade, I allow a controlled serendipity to dictate the final result.

You can purchase Galina's photograph Amanda IIIX from Fraction Editions.

Galina Kurlat is a Houston, TX based artist.
To view more of Galina's work, please visit her website.