Looking closely at studio portraits reveals the small decisions around a face. Light and framing guide the eye, while the person in the picture remains open to more than one reading.
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Light
A bright rim, a shaded face, or a color changing after dark. Looking at how light shapes an image and changes our understanding of a room.
The stories
Seen from above, pavement becomes a field of light and a passerby changes the composition. An essay on framing the street while leaving room for a person to interrupt the plan.
Empty red seats face a closed gold curtain. A look at the theater before an imagined audience arrives, moving from the shape of the auditorium to the closer details of seating and the work around stage lighting.
When the daylight goes, a familiar street acquires competing colors. Following green window light and an orange doorway through a few photographs made after the shops have closed, with enough darkness left between the brighter areas.
The film ends before the room has quite finished with it. A walk from the last row to the street, following the light that stays with us after the screen goes dark.
A dark picture asks the eye to do a little work. On reflections in glasses, faces at the edge of a room, and the pleasure of seeing a scene become legible by degrees.