The process of # 5

Today was the first shooting of #5, and I am pleased. I got all dolled up in a beard, wrinkles, and temporary black hair dye, stole some of my mother's clothing from the 90's, and went on a walkabout to get the right setting.
Part of my inspiration for #5 is René Magritte's painting The Son of Man, where he describes it as:

"At least it hides the face partly. Well, so you have the apparent face, the apple, hiding the visible but hidden, the face of the person. It's something that happens constantly. Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see. There is an interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us. This interest can take the form of a quite intense feeling, a sort of conflict, one might say, between the visible that is hidden and the visible that is present."

The reason this appealed to me was how he described conflict in seeing what is there or only implied. The first photo in the series is my favorite for this reason, because #5's eyes are hidden with the hair. The stature of the man visible in the frame also creates a conflict by cutting the composition of the body off by the torso, then flat geometric cools in the background.
I wanted to capture this feeling in the portraits of number 5 not only for the conflict but also the implied masculinity, so I emulated Son of Man's bricks and composition in the photos.

A video/song inspired this particular character as well, especially the pearls and melancholy mood I strived for.

Another photo that I kept in mind was one by Diane Arbus I felt captured conflict and a strangeness I was after. The black and white is also appealing to me in the photo, but I also like the coolness in the skin and hair color the originals have.
I'll play around with them...