Walking On A Dream

WALKING ON A DREAM (5/6)

Funny thing about this photograph, I took it just to finish my roll of film, the night before we left from Mykonos to go back to Athens. I had just bought the sunglasses that I am wearing, and after taking night pictures all night, I had one last photo left. I went into the bathroom to see what the sunglasses look like and noticed that the bathroom had this very interesting blue glow that was on the cool side, I guess that's the beauty of fluorescent lighting. I decided to try something and figured since I had one shot might as well use it up. I grabbed my camera, wound the film, flipped it so that the lens was facing me, opened the viewfinder and since its a Mamiya 220 the viewfinder is on the top of the camera so you look down. I tilted the camera so that I could see and focus through the mirror in the bathroom. It was challenging but I got it, I framed myself, fine focused as much as I could, and took the picture. I had to shoot at 1/60 because I was indoors and the light wasn't very bright, which is why the image is motion-blurred but I knew it would turn out like that. I like the fact that it's blurred and the tip of my glasses is the most focused part.

If you examine the reflection in my glasses you can see a lot of different things, the mirror starts where that green beam is, then you can see different soap containers along the bottom of the reflection, and finally you can see me shirtless holding the camera. Also, the reflection of the beam and the white sides on each side make it look like the eyes of a night creature. It was an interesting process but it turned out better than I thought it would. When I was taking this photo, I never thought I would be using it in the show but once I saw it I found it very intriguing. I decided to name this 'Walking On A Dream' because I feel it symbolizes me 'walking' on the dream of being a professional photographer. May sound cheesy but it makes sense to me. It's named after a song by again, Empire of The Sun. You should check it out, I like this song more than 'We Are The People' but that's just me.

Happy thanksgiving!

All images © Christos Spentzos 2009. These images may not be used without written permission under any circumstances.