Drama 16 Stage Lighting

I chose this picture because it reminded me of the lecture on Stanley McCandless. He said that to make stage lighting look natural, one side of the actor’s face will have to be lit with warm light and the other with cooler light, because one is rarely looking straight-on into a lighting source. Here we see a man, the left side of his face illuminated, and the right side in almost total darkness. His left eye looks so warm and available, the wrinkle around his mouth looks like the shadow of a smile. But he is not looking at us head-on, and only a small catch-light from his pupil is visible in his right eye — the lighting and the subtly turned head gives the impression that he has a secret. I wonder what he is hiding?

http://www.jeffmaddenphotography.com/People/Headshots/i-kdChZjR/0/L/Dave-Parrish-Headshot-L.jpg

Photo by Derrick Tyson – http://www.flickr.com/photos/derricksphotos/189815067/

Theme: Shadow

Description:  We all seem to shelter secrets. Whether we do it out of embarrassment or pride, secrets exist to hide or repress certain memories. Some secrets can even make us go insane, eating at our insides until nothing is left. There is a secret pain in this picture. The man hides in the shadows, scared to face his secrets but bits of it fall out of the shadow into sight. Shadow has a useful ability of hiding the things that we don’t want seen by others. Shadow however, can be manipulated by light, just as secrets can be manipulated by truth. The man seems to be in pain, afraid of his secrets, maybe his past, coming out. He pulls his face down and into the shadow for a reason. I can feel inner agony, leaking off his face. The light is cast from the ground and casts a shadow created from his nose and hands over most of his face. We can make out his eyes, mouth, hands, and a portion of his nose. Not too much skin is shown, keeping his face and identity a mystery. He is hiding something. But what is it? Well, that’s a secret!