Two variations on the portrait register inscribe the marks of time on known or anonymous faces in an original way: large-format photographs of plaster casts dialogue with portraits whose print surface has been accidentally damaged. In an interview published in 2001 on the occasion of an exhibition at the Glyptotek in Copenhagen, Torben Eskerod talks about the portrait genre, his relationship with death and his conception of photography.

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“l agree with Rodin when he said that portraiture is one of the most difficult genres of all. I've always been fascinated by Alberto Giacometti and Medardo Rosso, by their ability to condense the portrait; it's difficult to describe this in words, but it hits me right in the solar plexus. Giacometti's portraiture exhibits a preoccupation with the reduction of expression and feeling, a faltering before the point where appearance and disappearance come face to face. It is this which represents the challenge for me in portrait photography. […] Well death is always round the corner for me, as it's so inextricably a part of being alive. In Rome I was working on a series of portraits from tombstones. The parlaying of this theme actually takes place in the object itself, in the document. The portraits are produced with reflections from the glass and show the effects of the wear and tear of time. I am not working as a creator of stage sets, cannot put the people I photograph into settings. This perhaps exemplifies the difference between the role of the scientist and the film director. […] The technical sphere is naturally part of my work. I regard the camera as a machine
that enables me to undertake a form of scientific investigation. This is where my educational background comes in. I am working in that fertile exchange area between science and art.”