TEDx Calgary TRUTH Portrait Series Featuring Annika Odegard
Annika Odegard
Before TEDx Calgary, Annika had won numerous vocal competitions including the Calgary International Blues Festival Competition, placed 11th on Season 5 of Canadian Idol, won the Calgary Stampede Talent Search in 2012, and most recently was a feature performer at the Calgary Stampede’s Grandstand Show!
THE TEDx TRUTH PORTRAITS
TEDx Calgary 2014 was all about TRUTH. With the intention of getting at the truth of the speakers I did a series of close up portraits. My goal was to make portraits of the person behind the façade they project to the world, to photograph the TRUTH of each person.
To get as close to the TRUTH of each speaker I photographed them very close up with a short lens that allowed me to get into their personal space and disturb the distance we normally put between ourselves. The lighting was stripped down to just 1 studio light to keep things as simple. The background is a wall in a corner of the green room where the speakers prepared for their presentations.
Each portrait session was created in under 5 minutes so that we could. The time pressure was a tool I used to take control of the portrait session. I told each person that because we had limited time and I wanted to photograph their TRUTH, I needed them to drop their guard, look directly at the lens and show me the TRUTH of who they are. In that instant each person transformed. Their put on smile dissolved and their eyes relaxed – I feel like each person let their guard down and revealed themselves to me.
These are intimate photographs of the speakers. There isn’t any retouching done to their faces. What you see is what I saw – TRUTH.
Tell your truth in the comments.
Have your TRUTH photographed.
