First Seattleite Shoot

March 14th, 2009
Published in 12 Seattleites, Photography, Zoom-In Digest
Tags: 12 Seattleites, photo book, Seattle

I finally shot my first series of images for the “12 Seattleites” project. In short: the goal is to portray the city of Seattle through portraits of 12 of its inhabitants. Each subject is being shot over multiple sessions, to capture different aspects of that persons’s life. And this was the first session of the first subject.

Getting this one under the belt had tremendous personal importance. Not only because it officially kicks the project into the production phase, but also coming from four failed shoots in a row, I really needed this one to work out. Of course I got hit by a cold on the day of the shoot, but plowed through anyway. There was just no way, I was going to let a few shivers, sniffles and clammy hands stop this from happening.

Mai Li’s life has many facets and most seem to revolve around music. Recently, she composed the music for a small local theater’s interpretation of the play “Woyzeck“. I’ve included a YouTube video of her piece “Daughter” from the show, at the end of this post. The photo shoot started from the moment she arrived at the theater, and lasted up until the doors closed and the play began. They let me stay and watch it, and I was thoroughly entertained. In fact, I found it quite inspiring to be there and see them all prepare. The enthusiasm and energy of collaboration was so thick, you could almost cut it with a knife. But I’m not going to give away all the details now. Some things must be left for the book.

The photo attached to this blogpost (RSS subscribers can use this link) is taken in the theater’s tiny lobby just minutes before the play. This and future teasers from the project can also be found in my 12 Seattleite set on Flickr.