One of my most cherished protocols is a technique patterned after the famous portrait photographer, Platon. In fact, a dear friend and photographer for the Texas Monthly Magazine once called me “Platon on the Border”.

     The reason I am drawn to this type of artistic style is that it causes me to behold Him who makes no mistakes. Much of our world is caught-up in looking good, sexy, charming and the ever elusive quest to look forever young. Yet, big or small, skinny or not, wrinkles or smooth skinned, humans are fearfully and wonderfully made. 
      God sees us ‘in the raw’. He looks past the make-up, the unshaven face or the wrinkles that add weight to our face. His gaze is fixated constantly on us as a doting parent. He beholds beauty, love, life and heart. He sees what many are afraid to see in themselves; a perfectly created human being who may not always eat healthy, exercise regularly and is prone to falling short on a daily basis. When I engage in this shooting style, resounding beauty surfaces; beauty unlike anything I have had the privilege to behold.
      I’ve entitled this self-portrait, NO ESCAPE as it reminds me of my own mortality via my aging body. But more importantly, it reminds me of my inability to escape what the English poet Francis Thompson termed, “the hound of heaven”. 

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Art Moreno, Jr.