DAY 85

PORTRAITS

Drawing with Light

HELEN, DJ

Early on, my portraits were simple black and white images showing my subjects emerging from a black background. I started to play around with long and double exposures on film with some friends, and the result was a series of portraits called “Light Works,” from which this is taken. In complete darkness, the subject draws with a flashlight and then looks toward my camera, and I fire off the strobe afterward (this was done before the use of Photoshop in my work).

In this image, Helen has drawn what I like to think are two rockets blasting off and is looking right at you, challenging you to decipher the drawing and to make up your mind as to what the light drawing could be. —SA