San Francisco photographer, Charlotte Niel has been exploring identity and transformation in much of her work. Her previous series, Body Options, looked at the aging process (see below), but her new series, Behind the Curtain, is a more light hearted exploration of our love for the photo booth and the ability to hold a photograph in our hands.

Charlotte’s work has been shown nationally inclusive of Cooper Union Gallery, New York City, the Sussex Community College Gallery, Newton, New Jersey, the Center for Photography, Fort Collins, CO, the Gallery One Visual Arts Center in Ellenburg, Washington, the Panopticon Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts and the Cordon|Potts Gallery and the Rayko Photo Center, San Francisco, California.

For these reasons, I find it fascinating to watch what happens at photo booths at county fairs. People come with family and friends to celebrate anniversaries, birthdays, friendships or just to make an annual visit to the booths. For others, it is just a way to capture who they are or with whom they are at that moment, on their own private stage.

The result is a body of work of people who shared with me moments that took place in front of and behind the curtain, documented for unknown viewers. With my camera, it became a transformation of a private moment into a public one.