How does Chuck Close use the photograph?

Like other photorealists, Close uses the photograph as a
starting point for his creation of art.  Close is able to use the photograph to
represent the basic element of his creation.  From this, he is able to construct his own
interpretation of what is there.  Close uses the photograph in a Modernist way.  For
Close, the photograph does not represent the end point, the statement of totality. 
Rather, it represents a starting point, where the artist is able to take a statement of
supposed transcendent answer and construct a new vision that prompts more questions and
greater discussion.  For example, Close's work on Philip Glass was based off of a
picture and then an artwork created in different forms and mediums, allowing an entirely
new portrait or vision to emerge.  Close needs the photograph, but requires it not for a
statement of absolute authority, but rather as the starting point to undermine
it:

Chuck
Close often worked from photographic stills to create paintings that appeared to be
photographs. The everyday nature of the subject matter of the paintings likewise worked
to secure the painting as a realist
object.

In this idea, Close
is able to bring out the basic modernist notion that reality is a construct of multiple
shiftings in point of view, understanding, and perception.  The photograph is a part of
that process for Close and others like
him.