In both the graphite renderings and the color works Semelroth uses oblique lighting for a chiaroscuro in which the highlights and shadows sharpen every furrow and crease in his subjects' faces. If, as traditionally believed, the soul is reflected through the eyes, then Semelroth confirms that its consequent life history is sculpted in the skin. Each portrait lays bare a course of life, with no need of dates or particulars. The artist himself admits to an acute interest in the stories of his sitters and sometimes, often with a benign irony, counterpoints them with titles that allude to markers pulled from social or art history.
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