Night Prowler - Adrienne Ray
This composition is made from images I took at the UniverSoul Circus. There was a lot of movement around me and on stage, so it wasn't the best place to get high-quality exposures. I combined various images of dancers with LED wings to make it look like fairies dancing around the woman. Both performances had a very magical and dreamy feel so I wanted to capture that. The setting is meant to be obscure but still appear under the stars.
ReplyDeleteIn the Night Prowler photo by Adrienne Ray, a dancer surrounded by multicolored, illuminated “objects.” The dancer is the main character, wearing a white dress and is posed like she is twirling. Around her, there are strings of multicolored lights that seem to be flying through the air, almost like colorful, illuminated birds, spirits, or angels. The background of the composition includes hues of blue from dark at the top to lighter towards the bottom - nice gradient. There are stars in the sky above, shining down on the dancer and the multicolor object movements.
When I immediately saw this, I thought that it represented the movement of dance in some way. The swirling lights look similar to how dancers move around the dance floor when they are doing various steps. I didn’t understand though why there were lights above the dancer? Were some dancers flying in the air, being illuminated by the night sky or spotlights? Perhaps the main dancer is dancing among the spirits/family members of her past?
I think overall, this is a well-done composition. The use of lights to represent movement was incorporated well to show the flow across the dance floor. While a slightly slow shutter was used for the lights, it wasn’t too long since I could still see actual light bulbs vs. streaks of light. The dancer was almost in focus, so I would guess that less than a one second exposure was used. I also found the picture very crowded. While it looked like the dancer should be the focal point, the other light movements almost overshadow her, distracting me. Perhaps more light should have been placed on the main dancer to draw our attention to her initially. Nonetheless, while there is a lot of movement going on, the positioning of the lit “objects” does flow in a circular fashion, allowing my eyes to go throughout the image in a uniform fashion.
Going off of my interpretation, I could theorize that the artist is exploring cultural dance and ancestry within this piece. There are many various tribal dances that allude to historic events and ancestors who have gone before the current generation. I would theorize that this image portrays that combination of ancestry and history of a certain people group, as a celebration of life and family. I didn’t get any clues to what type of ancestral group in particular, but I’m not sure if that is needed here.
Overall, I think this is a well-composited image. The subjects seem to flow together well and create a unified story. The only critique I can give is that it would have been better to have a longer exposure on the lights in order to get better light trails as well as consider not putting so many elements into the same scene - allowing the dancer to be the focal point. I really enjoyed the composition though as a whole!