spheres

I remember that whenever someone asked to blow up balloons, everyone immediately jumped into action, and it was a hilarious activity. One would pop, and the person would get a funny fright; another would make a comical face; and the third, of course, would deflate and fly around the room with an incredible sound.

I felt the urge to capture the moment when people perform some simple yet special action that evokes childhood and the feeling of preparing for a celebration.

The moment of action interested me: the brief period of blowing up a balloon where a person is completely focused on the present. I wanted to try and examine this moment in isolation—as a distinct state that we fail to notice.

Close-ups and a deliberate disregard for the rules of classical portraiture allow one to dispense with the idealized depiction of a single subject. Instead, the action and the feeling of the moment become the center of perception. For the shoot, Polaroid film was chosen because of its contrast, color rendering, and blur, all of which lend the series a sense of chance and everyday memory.

Thanks to the folks in the photos, L., Popo, and