Jesse Kruis was the last piece of the puzzle for our kitchen renovation. He came in early one Tuesday morning to make the connections to the new sink and to hook up the new gas fire place.
He agreed to be photographed and soon after his work was done, he was standing in front of my camera. He had already filled out the sheet that told us who he was, but how much of that would transfer to the portrait? How would he define himself?
Looking at the portrait, I first look at the uniform. He is wearing a company issued shirt with his name and the logo on it that identifies him as a member. Next, we look at what he is holding, a pipe wrench, a tool that may be synonymous with plumbers. But the tool isn’t all that important in these images, instead I would again focus on the hands. We can clearly see that like our chimney sweeps, Jesse’s hands have been used the hard work of a plumber.
So what does this portrait tell us? Jesse is a plumber, works hard with his hands and is as friendly and comfortable with people as this portrait suggests. How does Jesse define himself?
Brother
Husband
Student
Son
New Mexican
hese are all things we don’t see in the portrait.
There is one more thing revealed in his drawing of the Zuni sun rising over the Organ Mountains that the portrait, uniform or his self defined list doesn’t tell us. The drawing identifies his place, not only as a New Mexican, but more specifically, a native of Las Cruces.
