Well the best info I've gleaned from this thread is that Geof and Maria are back together and performing. What a great voice that guy has... "Someone to Love" on Paul Butterfield's "Better Days" alblum (with the big, gold harmonica on the cover) is some of the best big band blues ever recorded.(posted 8614 days ago)And as far as this concept of essential eyes in a portrait, I think it's restrictive and counter productive.
Altaf hits the nail on the head "A photograph of a person with eyes and no emotion is a headshot and a bad one at that"...
As for Altaf's photo, while most eloquent (as he is), it does not fit the way I think of a portrait. Portraits generally allow the subject some conscious influence over their appearance, specifically for the photograph... a deliberate effort to create an image of what they look like. This photograph looks like it was made from a distance, spontaneously, with no collaboration between subject and photographer. And by way of unsolicited criticism, I'd crop out that woman whose looking the other way. She contributes nothing but a distraction. Then you'd have an insightful and revealing image... t