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These portraits, taken along the beaches of California, reveal the formality of the portrait experience. Captured at leisure and at work, the subjects respond, face and even perform for the camera. With life along the coast, the thought of Hollywood style discovery has become an unconcious wish, if not an outright desire. The projection of the subject's personality is often as sublte as one's hopes and dreams tattooed on their arm. The presence of the camera is understood. The context of the coastal or urban coastal landscape echoes the testament of commercialism and the definitive affect it has on how we are lead to interpret our own life experience. The record of Elliston's evidenciary eye asks if a day at the beach is really a great day without Coca Cola or Bud Light. The vision of a transistor radio reminds us of the commercial that floods the air like the sound of the wind, the surf, police scanners and a lifeguard's bullhorn.
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Man outside weightlifting enclosure, Muscle Beach,
California,1996 |
