Jon-Paul Khouri: part 1

This is the way I like to work - a genuine conversation interspersed with photography, and working with someone who is willing to be seen. Jon-Paul has energy and self-awareness. As an actor, he is more at home with physical self-expression, and that makes it fun to work with him. Yet he can be himself.

For a long time, I pushed people around me to let me take pictures. I wanted to reflect the beauty I saw, and put a lot of effort into trying to get images that they could feel good about. I was a pest. It was painful for me too - to get what I thought were good, beautiful images, and then find that the person was really unhappy with them.

Now I prefer to wait and work with people when they feel ready to be mirrored in this way. In part, this depends on the other person's acceptance of themselves physically at that moment in time. I know for me that acceptance comes and goes. Physical changes are difficult to embrace.

It is always risky to be photographed, so it takes a desire to balance out the discomfort. Myself, I have such a strong, awkward hunger to be seen, and I tend to assume everyone else does too.