A few weeks ago, I wrote about learning how to work in front of the camera under artificial rain.
At the time, I deliberately didn’t say very much about the project itself.
Now I finally can.
The photographs were created as part of a visual series developed for a photographic exhibition exploring something I found immediately fascinating:
How much can an external element change what we see in a person without actually changing the person at all?
For this series, that element was water.
Not because rain needed to symbolize sadness.
And not because water needed to represent struggle.
Actually, I liked the idea for exactly the opposite reason.
Water has no single emotion.
It can make an image feel peaceful.
Powerful.
Sensual.
Uncomfortable.
Playful.
Almost cinematic.
The person remains the same.
The element remains the same.
And yet, one small change in expression can create an entirely different story.
That became the heart of the project.
One person. Several interpretations.
The first part of the work was much more technical than I expected.
Learning not to react instinctively when water hits your face.
Keeping your eyes open.
Understanding how the light changes when the skin is wet.
Discovering how completely different an expression can look when surrounded by movement.
That was the part I shared before the actual shoot.
What I couldn’t show yet was where all of that preparation was going.
These are some of the final images.
And looking at them together is probably the best explanation of the idea behind the series.
In one photograph, everything feels quiet.
In another, there is strength.
In another, there is almost confrontation.
And then there is laughter.
Same person.
Same rain.
Completely different emotional language.
The photograph does not tell you what to feel
That was another part of the concept I particularly liked.
There was no intention to create one fixed interpretation.
A photograph becomes much more interesting when the viewer brings something of their own to it.
One person may see freedom.
Another may see vulnerability.
Someone else may simply see joy.
The image stays exactly the same.
The interpretation changes.
And perhaps that is why portrait photography continues to fascinate me.
It is never only about the person in front of the camera.
It is also about the person looking at the photograph.
And yes, the laughing one stayed.
During the preparation I joked that rain has absolutely no respect for timing.
That turned out to be true.
But one of my favourite photographs from the entire series came from exactly the reaction I had originally been training myself to avoid.
I laughed.
Completely.
And instead of ruining the photograph, it created another side of the story.
Which, in the end, feels quite appropriate.
Because a project about different forms of human expression probably needed at least one moment that refused to be controlled.
The preparation taught me how to work with the water.
The final photographs taught me something slightly different.
Sometimes the most interesting part of an image is not what you manage to control.
It is what the image reveals anyway.
Under the Surface.
One element.
One person.
And more than one story.
Silvia
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