Les Slesnick

My photographs are taken from my Private SpacesTM body of work, which documents the values of a culture as they are represented in the home and other interior spaces. Since 1987, major emphasis has been placed on the Yucatécan cultures of Mexico, with work also being done in Cuba and Colombia. People tend to display in their homes what they value most in life. An enormous amount of information about the people occupying these spaces can be gleaned by studying its contents, and seemingly unimportant details the inhabitants of the spaces have come to ignore, all become critically important elements of my work. The result is often what has been called a "peopleless portrait" – much is learned about an individual without actually seeing him. It's as if the person occupying the space just left the room, but left everything about himself behind, expecting to return momentarily. My work is printed from color negatives in limited editions. The colors seen in my photos are obtained by correct camera exposure, careful film development, and by meticulous hand printing. Finally, it should be noted that none of my images has 48 been set up or otherwise arranged or re-arranged; each environment is exactly as I found it.