« No matter how intimate, how well you know a person, you can never tell how a portrait will turn out. Almost as if a human being is so complex, we can never hope to grasp him fully, nor can he or she ever hope to be aware of their total being.

There is also the relationship between photographer and his subject. No one looks at another person in exactly the same way. I wanted everything to come from him, his eyes, facial expression, his body.

One also hopes for the impossible, by some miracle the portrait will not only be alive with the person’s inner being, but also have significance for everyone else. In other words, the portrait takes on implications beyond the particular human being, becoming a universal statement. Something we needed but did not know it. » LS

Woman in Stocking Cap, Rockefeller Center, 1976 – Gelatin silver print © Louis Stettner Estate

Brassai, 1983 – Gelatin silver print © Louis Stettner Estate

Dame de New York, 1983 – Gelatin silver print © Louis Stettner Estate

Edouard Boubat, 1995 – Gelatin silver print © Louis Stettner Estate

Portrait of a Young Woman, 1976 – Gelatin silver print © Louis Stettner Estate

Billy Albright, Dairy Farmer, 1999 – Gelatin silver print © Louis Stettner Estate

“Sic transit Gloria Mundi” or “The Triumph of Death” (Isabelle Rainy), 1986 – Gelatin silver print © Louis Stettner Estate

Untitled, – Gelatin silver print © Louis Stettner Estate

Easter Day Parade, 2002 – Gelatin silver print © Louis Stettner Estate

Eva, Athens, New York 1998 – Gelatin silver print © Louis Stettner Estate