Sontag Pictures

This is not actually a photograph of myself but a photograph that I was tagged in, on facebook.com, as the older woman on the right side of the composition. 

That woman is my friend's grandmother, and I suppose he thought it would be funny to tag me as her and one of our other friends, Luis, as the other woman.  The original purpose of the photo I'm sure was to capture two old friends in a moment of joy or maybe reunion, but the "tagging" of me and Luis gives the photo a duality in purpose, the other purpose being a way for the photographer to make a joke about his friends and to allow our other friends to enjoy that joke via the internet.  As mentioned before the photographer and the subject are related by blood and are close to each other.  As viewed on facebook, the relationship between the photographer and subject changes.  The fact that I did not get upset about my friend doing this, that I actually thought it was funny says a lot about our sense of humor and how comfortable we are with each other. 

This photo was taken to document my attendance at an event.  The photo was taken by a friend I have known for 8 years, yet rarely do I see him.  He is a semi-professional photographer who documents skating competitions and sessions through photography.  The photo is to be viewed by family, friends, and myself.

This photo is an action shot of me skating in Corpus Christi, TX, taken by another photographer who has based the majority of his work around documenting skating.  The purpose of this photo is to show action and danger, to be edgy.  Skating for a photographer can be pretty stressful, especially if the photographer is demanding and wants to capture the image in the moment when the body is in a most exaggerated position.  We spent about 45 minutes getting things timed right, which meant I had to do this trick over and over again.  I was definitely getting annoyed and he was getting frustrated as well but we got the picture.  Pictures such as this are usually intended for an audience that are involved in the sport, people who can identify and label exactly what I am doing but I like to think that the audience for this photo includes anybody who is curious about what "aggressive roller blading" is.