Three photos by Rachael Dunville

"Meeting Tina, Springfield, MO" by Rachael Dunville. From the "portrait" series.

In making a photograph with another person, my aim is to nourish the complex human essence and express it through the intensity, humor, surrealism and grace of photography.

"Amo" by Rachael Dunville. From the "springtown" series.

I approach the transaction of making a photograph of and with another person as an intuitive, magical exchange; a subtle seduction between willing participants. Springtown is an extensive series of color portrait photographs that reflect the ethos of the Ozark community in which I grew up and to which I belong. These images reveal an evolving emotional rapport between photographer and subject, based on a mutual regard for looking and for being seen. This oscillating event displays the complexities of human desire and tension as fundamental to the act of making photographic portraits.

"2004" by Rachael Dunville. From the "freelance / studio" series.

The studio is a platform; a bare setting, primed to reveal inner repose -- or a filter from reality to create a masquerade of fantasy.

All photos courtesy & copyright of Rachael Dunville.