NEW ORLEANS, LA.- Martine Chaisson Gallery presents photographer Herman Mhire’s first exhibition at the gallery. Titled Altered States, the Lafayette-based photographer presents an extraordinary series of surreal, large-scale portraits of Louisiana artists that explore ideas of portraiture, the photographic medium, and psychology. The exhibition runs through April 23rd, 2011. With each portrait, Mhire concocts a world rich with references of his art historical predecessors, yet a vision uniquely his own. “My passion lies in creating images I’ve never seen before,” says Mhire. “I transform photographic portraits into provocative and often disturbing hyperfaces that invite the viewer to search for clues about the altered states of my fictional characters.” The series Altered States was born out of a trip to Paris in 2007 when Mhire prolifically photographed sculptures of the human fig