Introducing: The Bathroom Portraits!

est. 2013

Lulu & Po / Ft. Greene // Brooklyn, NY /// 10.20.13

---

The Bathroom Portraits is an ongoing, off-the-cuff photo series.

It began spontaneously in 2013 — when I was a brunette — with this shot at Lulu & Po, a now-defunct Vietnamese Fusion (?) restaurant in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. 

I thought it looked like a painting.

I loved that.

Since then I have taken Bathroom Portraits in more than 10 states¹. 5 countries². On a boat. During a party. During a party on a boat. At a plethora of restaurants and bars. At salons, movie theaters, clubs, bus depots, private apartments, & a converted grammar school.

Nearly all of them were taken with my phone. (The best camera was indeed the one I had with me.)

Over the years, my technology improved. So did my portraits.

In the bathroom mirror, I am the most unguarded. No pleasantry, no social mask, no performance. (Well. This one at The Met has a little bit performance.)

The Metropolitan Opera / New York, NY // 10.31.13

My mother had come to visit me in Brooklyn. She was staying in a railroad apartment with my roommate and I, and fussing a lot, annoying both of us. We went to the opera twice. I think this one was Carmen. (If you see an opera at The Met, let it be Carmen!) At one point, Mom exited the bathroom and got in my shot. It was kind of sweet. I’m glad I have that shot. But it wasn’t the shot. This was the shot.

---

I’ve taken Bathroom Portraits when I felt sexy. I’ve taken them after rehearsal and after performing and after terrible sickness. Heartbroken or on a first date or so spitting mad that I ran off to a beach house we rented, by myself.

Yaffa Cafe / The East Village // New York, NY /// 11.9.13

After acting in Amina Henry’s play An American Family Takes A Lover at Theatre for the New City. Sick. Weeping.

---

I have worried many conscientious people. I have offended many innocent bladders. I almost always go until I get the shot. I know when I’ve got the shot.

The Player’s Club / Gramercy // New York, NY /// 12.30.13

I was wearing the wrong shoes for a Jazz Age swing dance party. And glasses from the wrong era. I kissed a blond stranger at the end of the night, when they turned the lights on. He was a nice dancer.

---

Sometimes I get it right away. Sometimes it takes a while. Sometimes I know it’s not coming.

About half of my locations don’t work out. I can’t get the shot I want because of the angle of the mirror, the size of the room, the state of my face, the lighting (the lighting!), or the inconvenient lack of a stepstool.

Couldn’t get this one right, for instance. It was a lighting problem, a space problem, a face problem.

Private Residence / East Williamsburg // Brooklyn, NY /// 12.24.13

Christmas Eve dinner at my roommate’s boyfriend’s industrial loft apartment. It was an eclectic crowd. I didn’t get their humor. I liked the very long table.

---

My Bathroom Portraits have ‘rules’ …

… and of course, sometimes I break them:

• All portraits must be self-portraits. 

(This is the rule I don’t break.)

• I have to wear what I’m wearing. I can take a layer off or put one back on, but I cannot leave and come back with a costume change

  

  Binghamton Bus Depot / Binghamton, NY // 12.25.13

  I was actually wearing this, upstate on Christmas in the year 2013, to visit my father, who was born in Brooklyn, like me.

  ---

• The hallway doesn’t count.

• All shots must be landscape-style (horizontal, get it?) unless impossible or ugly.

• Use only the available lighting.

• No filters, no cropping, no editing of any kind. (“Fix it in pre.”)

  

  “once i was a child” / Red Lantern // Ft. Greene /// Brooklyn, NY //// 10.25.13

  This was a cafe and bike shop. I wrote many words there. I was a regular. Years later, one of the guys who worked in the bike shop got in an accident while bike riding without a helmet, and his face was the first successful full face transplant. I started wearing a helmet after that.

  ---

• The phone / camera shouldn’t be in the shot.

• Avoid fixtures.

• Take portraits in the course of regular life — look for opportunities, but don’t schedule them. This is not a photo shoot. This is a moment.

• Give a real glimpse into my inner life.

Bar Unknown / The East Village // New York, NY /// 11.3.13

I don’t remember, but I wasn’t happy.

---

Welcome to The Bathroom Portraits.

P.S. Should I make a flip book or what?

1. New York

2. Louisiana

3. Florida

4. California

5. Oregon

6. Illinois

7. Texas

8. Tennessee

9. Colorado

10. Nevada

1.

2. The U.S.

Germany

Indonesia

Singapore

England