“My subjects reveal themselves because I reveal myself. By sharing my story, they share theirs.”
Joyce Tenneson has an interesting life, one that she has deliberately carved out for herself. Tenneson started out making self-portraits while raising her son. After her son had grown up and her marriage had ended, she sold her house and moved to New York to make it in the big smoke.
Her unique portrait style requires her sitters to remove their every day clothes. Tenneson believes this “strips the persona encouraged by clothes”. By swathing people in shapeless material, “it gives timelessness”.
“What is deeply personal is most universal”
Tenneson was rejected for assingment work for nine months. No recession, no lack of jobs, it just took nine months of hard work. During that time she would travel to her hometown D.C every weekend to do portrait works. And then she started getting hired.
“Every day heightens my awareness of a completion of a circle.”
Once, when she was assigned to take a portrait with the King and Queen of Jordon, their assistant said the royals wouldn’t have the time to see her. She said that’s fine, booked a hotel and called again, 9:05am, 12:05pm and 5:05pm. On the fourth day, she got a brief time period and took the shots she needed.
When she was doing assingments, she created her own photography books. Eventually she created a market for her unique style. Tenneson’s persistence made her the creative photographer she is today.
“Every time I had a new show, I really forced myself to deliver in a new output, a new experimentation.”
