The Sorcerer

This is a photo taken from the cover of an actors’ collective’s ‘opera prima’.

This time, the venue was a smaller theatre than those I usually work in. This meant there was less room for movement and only a few limited angles from which to take the shots. As a result, I mainly framed shots from below stage level, with very little freedom to move laterally. This forced me to rely almost entirely on timing rather than geometry. I therefore tried to draw the viewer into an uneasy proximity with the figure. This enabled me to focus on capturing expressions to reveal the character’s psychology.

This is particularly evident in this image, the main feature of which is the subtle ambiguity of the expression. The smile is neither reassuring nor openly threatening. Shaped by the theatrical make-up, the texture of the costume and the small, telling gesture of the arms held protectively across the body, it sits somewhere in between.

Due to the unforgiving nature of the lighting, I decided to leave the shadows dense in order to preserve the emotional temperature of the scene. Indeed, if I had to explain what makes this photo stand out, I would highlight the sense of unstable identity it conveys.