Cliffhanger

​I want to capture the different ways people face danger. Portraits of a simulated fight or flight responses that would focus on facial expressions unusual for a portraiture mode of depiction. I hope to photograph adrenaline, fear, paralysis, vertigo, thrill, and split second comprehension of death. The concept is placing people, who consented, in a specific situation of danger and capturing their expressions without their knowing as they face elements of danger and plausible death. This break I plan to travel to Xi’an and climb Mt. Huashan with friends. The route we plan to do is considered one of the most dangerous trails in the world, with many vertical drops (one segment is a board on a cliff face). They have all agreed to do this, wanting to do it for the experience, not for my project. The will behind their and my personal desire to do this will be considered. Verbal coercion will be used beforehand and during to force confrontation with the reality of what we are doing. I will have six subjects who I will photograph along the trek. I plan to present my final project as a collection of photos of their expressions and unfiltered, I will try to be as unintrusive with my camera as possible, reactions and one deadpan photo of the stone chess table at the summit as a centerpiece. I hope this concept will extend itself to consider self destructive tendencies and their association with the equilibrium obtained despite the chaos of life. Some people can’t work a nine to five, some people can, and some want to skydive, or climb on vertical cliffs.      

Featured in NYU Shanghai’s Student Gallery in December 2019.

Huashan(华山), China