Evelyn

“I don’t mind
If your hands are a little cold,
‘Cause I’m alive
But I’ve got nowhere to go.

So stay with me, Evelyn,
Don’t leave me with the medicine.

In the night,
As you sit and watch me sleep,
I know you cry,
But I never want to see.
So if you go
I don’t know what I’ll do.
So don’t you go,
‘Cause I’ve got no one but you.

So stay with me, Evelyn,
Don’t leave me with the medicine.
So stay with me, Evelyn,
Don’t leave me with the medicine.

I see the lights
Casting shadows on my screen,
And I don’t mind
The lullabies from the machines.
But if you go,
I don’t know what I’ll do,
So don’t you go,
‘Cause I’ve got no one but you.

So stay with me, Evelyn,
Don’t leave me with the medicine.
So stay with me, Evelyn,
Don’t leave me.

I’m more afraid than I’ve ever been,
So stay with me, Evelyn.”

[ Evelyn - Hurts ]

So, finally the photoshoot with Luisa has been fully published. As I promised, I’d like to talk a bit about this particular photo, Evelyn. The inspiration for this photo comes from the song of the same title by Hurts, which I have discovered thanks to Luisa (even before I came up with Silver Lining). It was her who came up with the idea for this photo: we were talking about our upcoming photoshoot in Venice, and she proposed me a photo of her in a penitent-like pose, all surrounded by a bluish light like a halo and looking sad and compassionate. As her description, although short, was very evocative and did fit perfectly the song (which I immediately loved), I accepted and wrote the concept down among the other ideas for the shoot. Ha, the easy part was done.

I immediately started thinking of how to manage the whole thing: the bluish part was a piece of cake as I only had to set the white balance to tungsten, but the lighting was a different thing. Truth be told, I had no clue about how to lighten Luisa’s face if I were to shoot her into the light, as I didn’t even have my reflecting panel at the moment. While we were shooting, I tried something into direct sunlight, but the result was horrible, so I decided to wait for a better idea.

To be honest, I was just extremely lucky with this photo: while walking around Venice I indeed found a very narrow alley (some 60-70 cm wide) with yellow walls, one of which was directly lightened by the sun and reflected the light onto the other wall, which reflected back some. Eureka, that was perfect. So I set the tungsten white balance, had Luisa standing in front of the directly illuminated wall with some of the light reflecting back on her face, I overexposed the photo, and there we were. Since the alley was not crowded at all (differently from the rest of Venice), I could take my time, relax and set things for the best, like for instance putting more emphasis on Luisa’s hands to make a reference to the first verse of the song (that’s why they’re slightly brighter than her face, and her marvellous complexion made the rest). And this is how one of my own favourite photos was born.