Present

A series of moving portraits of people framed within their front windows, displayed in the commercial heart of the city. Present has been produced by documentary and portrait photographer Dan Burwood and performance based installation artist Jo Tremarco. Portraits are usually taken to be a record of a person’s appearance, and hopefully their personality, in a still instant, isolated from the flow of time. Often it is not clear if they record a ‘truth’ about a person, or a performance. The portraits in the on-going Present series do not aspire to wholeness as still portraits seem to; they record the reactions of members of a diverse Birmingham community being watched, and reflect on what it means to be seen. Members of the community were asked to present themselves to the camera freely. Their performance or answer to the viewer is documented, and their faces and movements inhabit an empty shop window.