Photography is a part of me. It's as familiar and common to my life as is sleeping and eating. A camera is always by my side and I shoot most every single day with the pleasure and ease of a well developed habit. I often call photography my third eye because like an extra sense, it is as reflexive to my perceptions and intuitions as are my very own eyes.

I particularly love to capture the "feel" of what I surround myself with; my family, friends & home. It is within them that I am the most relaxed and aware of the moods of the moments as they come and go. I guess the honesty there is self-evident and in such close relationships there is nothing really trying to hide but instead sincerely attempting to reveal itself. With self-portraits I take this closeness and familiarity even further and turn inwards towards my self.

These self-portraits are simply that, my camera in my hand, composing backwards & seeing what those loved ones who are usually the subject see. Taken while I was living in Miami's south beach, they are portraits of me as if some invisible photographer was always near by to capture my thoughts and feelings throughout any given day. Like sleep walking or automatic writing, I am in two places at once. One part of me is unaware of the other when these shots are being taken. Only after they are developed is there any recollection of what actually was taking place. As the object and the observer, only after there is a solid picture can I, in the third person, truly take a look.

-Alicia Sparaco