Greg Neville, Close Up-Gary Cooper, 2012

A new project I’m working on is from the videos I projected in my Masters exhibition. Short close up shots from various movies were projected in slow motion, to savour the subtle changes of expression and flickering thoughts that actors convey. The new work is a series of individual frames taken from those close up sequences. The moving pictures have become still, and you can study each expression, isolated from time.

The Masters project was an attempt to combine masculinity and entropy, presenting images of male faces expressing doubt and disollution (the video project was called The Dissolving Man).

When good actors perform close ups it can be very moving, a wonderful insight into human emotion. Gary Cooper was known in Hollywood as someone who didn’t appear to be doing anything at all when you saw him on set, but revealed great skill and expression when the same performance was seen on the big screen. It’s about micro-expressions, internalising and thinking the emotion.

To see what I’m talking about, click on the image for a closer view.

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