256 - Naturally Disagreeable

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One of my photography projects in 2011 was to photograph customers going in and out of the glass doors at the V&A Museum in South Kensington London. It didn't really come together, but I was intuitively exploring the idea of different realities: people passing from one reality to another.

One of the logistical obstacles was that it trapped people - there was a sense of ambush and it made people self-conscious. Morally that wasn't ideal. I didn't aim to make people uncomfortable, (I had generally found street photography involved more connection than disconnection). But my fascination with the light, the glass and the transition made me carry on visiting and photographing (from the vantage point of a tiny sketching stool) until eventually someone complained and security asked me to stop.

One evening - maybe a Friday Night Late Event - this tattooed guy came through. I remember him telling me off and giving me a bit of a lecture for photographing him. He is Etienne Dumont - one of the most tattooed people in the world, with his body 95% covered. Now retired, he was an art critic and he is based in Switzerland. He considers himself a living art work.  

I watched this short interview with him (which has a bad auto translate to English) and he commented that he considers himself a 'naturally disagreeable' person.

It's interesting the way the tattoos make it difficult to read the emotions and age in his face. I feel his tattoos are an odd combination of 'to cover' and 'to expose'. There's something very raw about them. Like skin pulled back to reveal vulnerable organs. In fact, he also wears transparent discs to that you can literally see through his face. In my photo you can see his gums and teeth through the round window in his chin. 

The motifs are warrior, but standing out so much makes a person vulnerable, so conversely they don't seem frightening.

That happens a bit with the street photography - as a photographer, you make yourself vulnerable to people. You're out there, generally alone, and you assume a connection with people and they accept you. Or not. Depending on how disagreeable they are.