Tiffany Sutton's multiple exposure portraits show the complexity of visualizing identity.

When photographing with film, multiple exposures are often accidents or visual gimmicks. The film failed to advance on a roll, abstracting a few images onto a single frame. Looks cool. Can it go deeper? Absolutely.

Tiffany Sutton’s multiple exposures consider the limitations, yet endless possibilities of meaning and representation in photographic portraiture. A moment to slow down and carefully examine the person being photographed as more than just a visual specimen. To examine the full scope of an individual - their culture, gender, influences, joys, and struggles. To look with infinite layers of psychological space. Perhaps a light-sensitive channeling of futurism and abstract expressionism. An opportunity, as Sutton describes, “to catch every moment in the subject’s life.”

I spoke with Sutton – whose work we recently included in Humble’s “Two Way Lens: Portraits As Empathy” exhibition - to learn more about her process and ideas on portraiture’s wide potential.

Jon Feinstein in conversation with Tiffany Sutton