Jeff Sheng Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
Why would you want to take a portrait of someone without showing his or her face? The essence of portrait photography, after all, is to capture the spirit of the subject and to reveal some crucial aspect of his or her identity.
But in the case of L.A. photographer Jeff Sheng’s latest project, capturing his subjects’ faces would almost certainly put their careers in jeopardy. That’s because Sheng has set about to photograph U.S. military service personnel who are gay but closeted in their work lives. Titled “Dont’ Ask, Don’t Tell,” the ongoing project consists of a series of stark, sometimes sad, portraits of U.S. soldiers who are forced to hide a part of who they are. via…
