Portraits Projects: Commissions

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‘Portraits Project’ stems from ‘Urban Evolution’ series that documents what is often referred to as ‘urban decay’, yet artist Burton Machen finds the evolution to be the actual art and inspiration.

The idea of watching the urban evolution process on a profile of Machen’s choosing finally struck the artist as the next logical step after years of photographing the images found on the streets of New York, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Paris, and San Francisco. His series ‘Urban Evolution Portraits’ developed after an accumulation of distinctive photos of both well-known and unknown figures had grown. The idea to post images of political figures, celebrities, friends, and personalities of his own choosing, that he connected with for whatever reason inspired the ‘Portraits Project’. Watching these images evolve, and the reaction they would solicit added another dimension to the documentation of the evolution process, which will remain the same for Machen once, his chosen images are posted; time, the elements, artists and passersby help create the collage effect by collaborating unwittingly.