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Jennifer Zhou | all galleries >> Galleries >> The Mirror of My Soul > Dilemma, 2005
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29-APR-2005

Dilemma, 2005

Canon EOS 10D
1/10s f/4.5 at 28.0mm iso400 full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto
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Ken Zaret07-Oct-2007 01:21
way to go. curiously statuesque, as if carved from white marble like a Brancusi
flowsnow31-May-2007 00:34
Hi, nice meeting you and yes I agree with the rest, this is a very eye catching shot and most of all you look very pretty :D
david procter31-Mar-2007 08:50
So pure and ethereal.
I met Kal Khogali last week and we spoke of your talent.
You remain my favourite street photographer here.
Paradoxal Studio Classic27-Jan-2007 08:59
What a beautiful portrait...
:oO
Guest 22-Dec-2006 23:44
Excellent
Guest 05-Sep-2006 02:34
What can I say? The composition, the lighting, the expression and the title. They are utterly good taste. This one is going to be unforgettable.
Guy Dube16-Aug-2006 13:47
A very nice picture, Jennifer. I like the blur effect in the picture, very well done! And you are very photogenic, Jennifer!
Best regards
Guy
Emad Omar12-Aug-2006 15:44
Very nice self-portraits.
kyoung kim photography07-May-2006 19:08
Beautidul! I love this one.
Guest 29-Mar-2006 04:08
what can I say? this is beautiful! the high key effect brings the best in this portrait.
Sheena Xin Liu19-Jan-2006 19:39
Jen, You are so talented, in whatever ways. Your delicate work inspires me a lot. Thank you and wish luck is always with you. Sheena
Guest 04-Dec-2005 15:11
Lovely mood portrait
Guest 24-Nov-2005 02:16
Wonderful self portrait. The lighting and the expression on your face are timeless.
Guest 21-Aug-2005 00:42
So young yet so talented! you are beautiful but your talent is even more so, and I think this expression on you shows a hunger deep from within! What is the next level? how can I achieve it? It's the dilemma we all face......
Charlie An 29-Jun-2005 21:37
Pardon me, but is it the should? or what? ... :D
Devilgorgor20-Jun-2005 01:58
lovely
Guest 09-Jun-2005 07:30
Nice hi-key portrait Jen...yet soft on the highlights and expressive angel face of yours!
Cool! thumbs up!
Guest 06-Jun-2005 00:11
Beauty..
ruthemily25-May-2005 18:26
this is a brilliant self-portrait, Jen. to me it speaks of longing and your eyes are almost pleading in a way. it draws me right in, it is so intense and emotional.
A Reid24-May-2005 04:04
So what is the dilemma you speak of? Nice shot.
Guest 18-May-2005 08:52
Hi Jen, I was just walking arround the web and I saw at first this stonishing portrait, it is a realy significative one first of all because it is very different of any of the other ones you have posted before as well as for mood or for technic. The truth is that I hardly even recognized you here. :))

The soft light and it's intensity together with the soft focus gives it a clean and dreamy feeleng too the picture that at the same time makes it a very sensual one
About the vantage point it is perfect since you are face to face with the viewer and as such impacting him/her directly with this slightly destressed face and expressing much of it's sensual content with the mouth and the fingers untop of your knee, I supose. Good abstraction too since it pushes you to say wat a prittie person I have here enfront, but with the clean and pure enviorment it stays there, how could I say it, perhaps some people will go to think of what is not seen, but I prefere to think about the vulnerability and fragility of that person as a beautifull Ming jar, for saying it in some way.
Let me add too that the long falling hair also adds to the both sences of the photos very well, as well as the sensuall one as the kind one, I supose that it depends on who looks at it.
It is realy a total brake with the anterior photo of fear, but it also has many human values.
Definitievly, nice job Jen.

A big hug.



Hong guang.YU 17-May-2005 04:08
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Kal Khogali17-May-2005 00:58
The coming out of Jennifer Zhou! I can't help contrasting this image with your self portrait imersed in darkness. Nothing to fear but fear itself, and here the insecurities and vunerability remain, but you have chosen the light and exposed yourself, I even see a message in the low key overexposed effect. We can all see you now, and we can all see in to you now. What an amazing transformation Jen. As ever I am in awe....Kal
Brian Lai15-May-2005 15:53
This would be.....unforgettable!
Phil Douglis15-May-2005 03:29
****This is by far the strongest self portrait you have ever made, Jen. It is rich in incongruities, well abstracted and overflowing with human values. The image is credible, intimate, and revealing. You are not playing a role here. You show us not what you look like, or want to look like, but rather who you are, and you hint at what you would like to become. You glow from within, yet seem unsure of your luminosity. You appear seductive and sensual, yet at the same time you appear to be almost transparent and quite vulnerable.

This portrait is all about uncertainty -- it is an image that asks many questions as it looks me in the eye. I also value the black and white abstraction here -- you strip both the image and yourself down to the point where the viewer must supply as much meaning as the image itself. I see longing, fear, vulnerability, fragility here, and yet I also glimpse desire etched in your expression. The raised knee, which resembles a shoulder at first glance, is in a somewhat awkward position. which only strengthens the ambiguity of this image. You seem self-protective, as if you were hiding behind a barrier.

All of these things -- ambiguity, sensuality, uncertainty, apprehension, vulnerability and desire -- are part of not only Jen, but in a larger sense they represent all of us. Who among us has not also had to face uncertainties? Everyone I know has felt vulnerable as well. And most of us have experienced that very interplay between desire on one hand, and self protectiveness on the other. Indeed, this profound portrait reaches far beyond just Jen, and touches all who look at it. In revealing so much of yourself to us, Jen, you make us all look deeply into ourselves and you trigger thoughts of the same needs and feelings you are expressing here. A long time ago, you and I talked about the camera as a mirror which can reflect aspects of our own souls to others. This is such a mirror.
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