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ET·018 Portraits 2024

Low-light portraits

the night lights better than people say

category
Portraits
year
2024
location
Florence and around
frames
5
status
developed and fixed
A woman stands beside a shop window at night, her face lit by the pink glow of a neon sign, dark background with blurred lights.
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the work

No flash, no panels. Just the light the city leaves on: pharmacy neon, bus-stop screens, tired streetlights.

I started out of laziness, I'll admit it. Then I understood that low light forces you to actually look: where it falls, what it hides, how much noise you're willing to live with. Usually a lot.

These portraits are made that way. Some came out bad and stayed out. Some came out bad and stayed in, because it was the right person.

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the sequence

click for the full-screen print
A man sits alone at an outdoor table outside a shuttered cafe, lit from above by a streetlight, empty street around him.
#01 He was waiting for someone who isn't me. The streetlight did the rest.
A girl in profile at a bus stop at night, her face lit blue by the glow of the departures screen.
#02 The timetable light is ugly and lovely at once. Three frames, this is the one.
Two people in silhouette under a dark arcade, backlit by the headlights of a passing car.
#03 I waited ten minutes for the right car. One came.
Self-portrait reflected in the window of a closed shop, a figure with a camera barely readable among the reflected signs.
#04 Technically a self-portrait. Practically a ghost holding a camera.