Composite Portraits
by Brian Purnell
Feb. 7, 2022
Why am I motivated to create composite portraits?
First of all, I love observing and photographing people. A significant part of my creative pursuit is making portraits that describe the nuances and emotional complexities of the human face.
I live in rural eastern Oregon (USA), a place where, even before the Covid-19 pandemic, people disappear from the sidewalks as temperatures drop and fall turns to winter. In November, 2018, lacking street subjects, I turned for inspiration to local street murals depicting people in historical events. Soon the thought occurred to me to combine some of those mural faces with portraits I had taken. I was familiar with Jerry Ueslmann’s wonderful, surreal, analog composites, and wondered if I could layer face images to create new and interesting portraits. Fortunately, I found Google’s Snapseed photo editing app, which is a great help. I love it because the process is both simple and intuitive. It allows me to create portraits in a very organic way.
Initially only black and white, my images have gradually begun incorporating color. Many convey surreal and psychologically jarring themes that I think are generally subconscious and dream- related. I usually make my composites in the morning, with a cup of coffee nearby. This routine seems to assist the process.
So, this portrait- creation- process that began as an adaptation to street-less people has led to a fulfilling, year round pursuit. I hope you enjoy seeing them as much as I love making them.
Brian Purnell, a Pendleton, Oregon based photographer, has been honing his compositional eye since the late 1960s when he chose Art Education as a career. Now actively retired with over 40 years experience working with both children and adults, Mr. Purnell has returned to his interest in photography, with an emphasis in composite portraiture, black and white social documentation, graffiti- based abstractions, and street portraiture.
Mr. Purnell has been involved in many individual and collaborative shows, including the Feves Gallery at Blue Mountain Community College, the Pendleton Convention Center, Pendleton Center for the Arts, Umatilla County Library, and The Great Pacific in Pendleton.
What struck me in this work is the obsession. Purnell's work made me think of Grosz's characters, Artaud and the faces of the mentally ill. The author uses a small program to work the jpgs, we are in the extreme digital world, but what is striking is the mood, and the exhausting continuity of the project. An unhappy humanity. B.H.