IN
«5»
Long Shadows The concept for the second ‘in’ started primarily from a technique I’d wanted to try for a while. I’d seen a number of places doing interesting things with colored two point lighting, and I knew I wanted to try it out in some capacity, so I figured what better time than in the midsts of a project where I needed to apply a number of different techniques. In the first phases, I just knew I wanted to use the lighting. I hadn’t envisioned what exactly I’d do with it. Perhaps I’d already create a novel form or procedure and light it this way, but as I experimented the solution came together. Photographing a few test objects to get a sense for how the lighting played against the scene, I enjoyed the way the shadows split off at each angle, coloring each with the shades of opposing colored light.
I adjusted the balance on the light in the scene until I could cast long shadows on one side that intermingled with the color from the other. Taking some cardboard I had lying around, in an impromptu act, I cut into it to form letters. Imagining as I went what a typeface applied well for this circumstance might be, I cut a sans serif form, aiming to keep the stroke and arc widths relatively consistent to play well as shadow, but with an increase in the incline of the angle from the joint of the ‘n’ into its shoulder so accentuate the angularity presented by the abstraction of the shadow. I fashioned enough of a base from the cardboard to tape the form down, and angled the camera until it was out of frame, capturing only its remnants by
shadow. In a sense, the act places the shadow ‘in’ the scene,’ while at the same time juxtaposing the word by not including ‘in’ the scene in actuality at all. Then, taking the raw photo into my computer, I edited it to balance the light and shadow of the overall scene. In conceiving of the use of shadow, I once again wanted to push the legibility of the word as much as possible without losing meaning in the form. Since ‘in’ is a simple word, I felt that not much needed to be perceived of it for the word to get through, giving me ample opportunity to stretch its form in the abstraction of shadow.