Jim Carrey, Los Angeles CA, 1998. Photography is all about light—that’s the essence of it. What we see, what our brain processes, is light reflecting off an object. But the shadow, the absence of light, can sometimes reveal something even more powerful. I was shooting Jim, who’s as conceptual and intelligent as he is funny. I showed him the Polaroid I just shot, and his shadow caught my attention. That shadow ended up being a better portrait of him than the original shot—it captured something deeper about his personality.The shadow reflects Jim’s own complexity, as a comedian who often wore a metaphorical mask through his characters. It revealed that there’s a deeper layer behind the roles we play and the personas we create.
