Sebastian Collett

Photographer
Vanishing Point
Location: Asheville, NC
Nationality: USA/France
Biography: Sebastian Collett grew up in Ohio and France. Following an early career as a pianist, he fell in love with photography in college, while studying with Stephen Shore and Larry Fink. Upon graduating he traveled the world for fifteen years, then... MORE
Public Story
Vanishing Point
Copyright Sebastian Collett 2024
Updated May 2015
Topics Aging, Black and White, Candid, Documentary, Gay, Personal, Photojournalism, Portraiture, School/College, Street, Teens

"Vanishing Point" probes memory and desire through encounters with people at pivotal points in life.

Growing up gay in a small college town in Ohio, the life I desired seemed always just out of reach. Twenty years later, a grown man yet still full of longing, I returned for my high school reunion.

Photography became a tool for time travel. Immersed in the landscape of my youth, I scouted for "stand-ins" for characters from my past. Archetypal figures appeared: those I had wanted, or wanted to be, and those I was afraid to become.  In their eyes, I encountered my alternate selves. As they met my gaze, I saw them look forward to their own aging with a mixture of curiosity and trepidation. 

We stood at a crossroads "“ each of us perched on the cusp of becoming the other. I watched for moments of transition, when the subject seemed on the verge of becoming or vanishing.  I photograph to describe these liminal states "“ evoking the eternal quest to situate the self in time.

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