Many of you have written to us off-line about the portrait we posted of poet Jason Shinder, who died last week. The portrait is by filmmaker and photographer Bill Hayward and is from Bill Hayward’s Americans – America in Portraits of the Collaborative Self. Hayward engages Americans in conversation and play with paper and paint. By doing so, says Hayward, "individuals reclaim the authority of their imagination and speak truth to: Desire, Body, Memory, Love, Sex, Courage, Home, Mother, Freedome, Peace, and OZ. All of the words/marks/constructions in the images are made by the subjects: their words, their images, their truth…their art, their heart."
Hayward has made portraits of poets, presidents, musicians, dancers, and painters. You can find more of his compelling images in Bad Behavior (Rizzoli, 2000).
We are grateful to Bill for sharing his work with us so that we can share it with you.
— sdh