Oto Gillen on Self-Portrait at 5am, April 15, 2020: Two and a half years ago, I began capturing portraits of friends in a controlled studio environment with the ambition of creating a parallel body of images that contrasted my daily photographic practice in form and approach. I was particularly interested in how I could control artificial light falling across the contours of the human face when it is emitted from a vertical line of diffused, white LED’s. This lighting arrangement allowed me to accentuate and transform the structure of the face and to evoke a sense that they were conjured from the depths of memory. These portraits are controlled, posed and personal. Now that daily life has taken unexpected turn, the only way to continue this work in the meantime is to periodically sit for myself.