A young man poses shirtless, jeans hanging from his waist. His hands, which are placed gently above his head, accentuate his ribs and the curve of his back as he looks deeply into the lens.
Next to this portrait is another photo of an older man doing the exact same pose. He wears a more serious expression and his body looks more muscular, with a tattoo that runs the entire length of his torso.
The man in both images is model Jacob Buchholz. He was 23 years old when the first photograph was taken, in 2004, while the second was captured 17 years later, around the time he turned 40.
The diptych is part of Doug Inglish’s new photography series, “Then & Now,” in which he asked models to recreate portraits he had taken of them in the early 2000s.
The resulting images juxtapose the subjects’ past and present, leaving viewers to reflect on the passage of time.
“As I get older, there’s this longing for the past,” Inglish said in a phone interview. “There’s a desire to recreate (the past) or just be back where you were. But the truth is, when I think about it, I’m a much happier person today than I was then.”
The original images, taken from the American photographer’s vast archive, show then-young male models hoping to break into the fashion and entertainment industries. They were taken during test sessions to “help build a model’s portfolio,” he explained.
“Modeling bookers would send guys over to my house for a casting call, and if I liked them and the way they looked, I would photograph them.”
Inglish said he gravitates towards portraiture as it allows him to develop a connection with the person he is photographing. And while he is best known for magazine essays with stars like David Beckham and Mila Kunis, “Then & Now” is a more personal work.
The project came about when Inglish reconnected with Buchholz on Facebook and asked if he would be interested in modeling for him again.
“It was like we picked up right where we left off,” he said of filming, which took place at his Los Angeles home last year.
The duo recreated a series of different poses from the original shoot, with more than a dozen side-by-side photos published in a special issue of independent magazine Ey!
He then began contacting other earlier models in hopes of expanding the project further. He said nearly everyone he approached agreed to recreate photos of him.
Many of Inglish’s subjects had come to Los Angeles to try to excel as models and actors. Some of them, including “Andi Mack” star Trent Garrett and Australian actor Luke Cook, have since found success. “It’s really exciting to see their progress,” Inglish said, “because it’s so rare, you know?”
In July, a selection of images from “Then & Now” was shown at Cubo, a gallery in the historic center of Mexico City.
According to the show’s curator, Georgianna Chiang, the images invited viewers to consider each model’s maturity and growth.
“It really becomes this role that the photographer has – to observe and be a vessel for the passage of time,” she said.
Inglish hopes to continue working on the series, with a view to publishing the images in a book.
“It was super satisfying,” Inglish said of sharing her less-seen work.
“It wasn’t something I was ready to show until now. It’s kind of cathartic. It’s good for me to see them out in the world and people respond and get excited and bond.”
Source: CNN Brasil
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