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September 2019
Taken in the same photography meetup in San Francisco, the biggest focal point that I had noticed in the space was the way light passes through the environment. The sharp edges in many of the windows’ shadows felt pronounced and dramatic, and I felt that I could use this to help frame the subject, in frame, with more depth to the storytelling aspect.
When Sara and I were brainstorming on different concepts we can go for, we felt that it would be interesting to go for something that felt almost akin to a soap opera of sorts. She had a blue dress with a fabric that gave a muted look with the light, and fit with the thematic atmosphere that we were thinking of. It’s rich dark color felt like it coupled well with feelings of contempt, isolation, and loneliness. To emphasize this even more, compositionally, I wanted to keep Sara in focus while allowing the shadows, in the tub to look as if it was boxing her in.
Often times, I make sure the subjects are facing the light, but with this set of photos, it almost feels as if the light acts as some sort of source of liberation for the character Sara portrays, in which this sort of metaphorical freedom feels too unfamiliar that it is blinding at one point. Yet she is always facing towards it, and almost appears to find comfort in her isolation, and we, the viewer, are observing from the outside. Sara’s idea to use the prop of the champagne glass was a nice to touch to also point towards either a sense of quiet celebration for herself, or to toast someone that has been frequently absent in this narrative.