The B-Side (2016)

Elsa Dorfman: Self

Photos 

Quotes 

• Elsa Dorfman : It was so embarrassing not to be anything. I wasn't married, so you had to be called something when people said what are you doing. In those days, it was mortifying not to be married, so I had to have a thing, so what could be better? My camera! I'm a photographer!

• Elsa Dorfman : Being comfortable with the camera on myself affected how I felt in taking pictures of others. I really had in my mind that this was helping me, in some magical way, to take portraits, because people would sense I did it to myself too.

• Elsa Dorfman : It's sort of like a reservoir that's in me that's operating but I'm not thinking about it when I actually have... the camera is in my hands. I'm really guided by unconscious. Sounds kind of mystical. I think I take my best pictures when my head isn't cluttered with other things.

• Elsa Dorfman : The camera is like a fork or a spoon. It's an instrument you eat your soup with. It's not the soup.

• Elsa Dorfman : I decided that New York was too much for me. There was no woman that I met who wasn't an alcoholic, who wasn't promiscuous, who wasn't a druggie and was creative or had an interesting life. Really a defeat for me was that I went back home and lived with my parents and got a degree at BC to teach elementary school.

• Elsa Dorfman : I'm really interested in the surfaces of people. I'm totally not interested in capturing their souls. I'm only interested in how they seem. That's how I feel about my portraits and how, for me, portraiture works.

• Elsa Dorfman : I think that a lot of my work people have said, "Oh, her work is too sunny." The explanation is, in my life I've worked hard not to be down. Life when you're down is hard enough. You don't want to walk around with a picture of it. I'm not good at "Oh, yeah, it's really bad. Your mother is a witch. Your husband is awful. The food is lousy. Yeah, you're right. You should hear my story!" I'm not that type of person. I don't like to take pictures of people who are sad, and I don't like to take pictures of people who are broken-hearted. I somehow have this misguided therapeutic idea that it's my role in the universe to make people feel better. "This'll be easy. Look! It's easy! Let's have fun!" So I do whip up a certain energy.

• Elsa Dorfman : My work is about affection. People come to me and they want to take a picture either out of affection for the person they're giving the photograph to, or affection for the person they're gonna be with. It's very family oriented.

• Elsa Dorfman : So the warning I gave my clients was, "Keep your portrait out of the direct sun. Polish your frame rarely, and when you do, use Plexiglas cleaner and a soft cloth. Never, ever use Windex and a paper towel."

• Elsa Dorfman : I can't really explain it too much, but portraits have always been what's interesting to me. And I try to make people feel comfortable so that they'll give a lot of themselves. But I don't want to invade them to get more than they're willing to give. And I like to say to people, "You're responsible for how you look in front of my camera. You can't come in front of my camera and expect me to do it all." I've had adolescents say, "Well, this is what you're gonna get." And you know, I sort of said, like, "Well, f--- you! This is what you're giving me? This is what you're gonna get back. This is no airbrush studio. This is what you're gonna get!"

• Elsa Dorfman : I can't really explain it too much but portraits have always been what's interesting to me. And I try to make people feel comfortable so that they'll give a lot of themselves. But I'm not - don't want to invade them to get more than they're willing to give. And I like to say to people, "You're responsible for how you look in front of my camera. You can't come in front of my camera and expect me to do it all." I've had adolescents say, "Well, this is what you're gonna get." And you know, I sort of said, like, Well, fuck you! This is what you're giving me? This is what you're gonna get back. This is no airbrush studio. This is what you're gonna get!"