Portraits Of Boston: Mark Making

“In my personal work outside of this store I do mark making.”

“I’m afraid I don’t know anything about mark making.”

“The marks appear like words on a page in whatever medium I choose; however, they are translated into illegible marks so that the message I’ve written is disguised. This may seem exclusive to the viewer in that they’ll never know what it really says. At the same time, it also lets them make connections to their own life and come to different conclusions about what the letters mean.”

“Have you ever expressed something very personal through these marks?”

“Every letter I write is extremely personal, which is the whole reason for masking the text in the first place. Through this writing I’m forced to face my own feelings as well as reflections on my relationships by ‘speaking’ to people in my life who I haven’t actually spoken to about these things. I guess the idea is that one day I’ll have the confidence to have these conversations, but I’m not sure if that will ever happen for all of them.”

Portraits of Boston is a project of independent photographer Ivan Velinov. He is regularly sharing some of his favorite portraits with WBUR. Visit his website to see the hundreds of portraits he has taken on the streets of Boston.