Portraits of NY City Educators After School

Aliza Eliazarov is NY based photographer and a former teacher of 8 years. She photographed teachers in NY after classes are over and asks them simple questions, like "What was the highest point of your day?" or "How do you feel?" This series caught my eye because of the similar approach that I've been taking with my subjects where I'm nterviewing them and then photographing. The content of the series is interesting and the images are well lit and the location of where each teacher is photographed seems to have been well thought of - the images still are missing something. This approach in having the subject dead center is repeated throughout the series and for me, it lacks connection. This is exactly what I'm finding in my recent photographs and this setup seems like the obvious approach. Looking at this series confirms to me that my approach is expected, typical and therefore a failure to my attempt in approaching this way of portraiture. I can see that this approach will be a difficult task for me, but I'm hoping I can learn from work like this and grow and push my work into something new and not stay in the expected.