Floods

“Through the years we’ve travelled, you and me,
Through the seasons, solar systems.
I’ve never kept such faithful company,
I always knew you’d go the distance.

Bring your flood to me, my friend, I need you.
Bring your flood to me, my friend, I need you.
Bring your flood to me, my friend, I need you.
Bring your flood to me, my friend, I need you.

You became a colour I could see,
Flashing through each pure emotion.
You became the mark of what it means
To say a prayer with pure devotion.

Bring your flood to me, my friend, I need you.
Bring your flood to me, my friend, I need you.
Bring your flood to me, my friend, I need you.
Bring your flood to me, my friend, I need you.”

[ Floods – Phildel ]

Floods presented me with a little series of challenges ever since I started conceptualising it. First of all, it’s the third song in the album with a sea-oriented metaphor, which required me to think of all three photos simultaneously so that I could make them different. Second, the concepts for Wild Sea and, to a lesser extent, A Great Wave were a bit up in the air until I could have reliable weather forecasts, so that in turn led me to leave Floods open. Third, my original concept required for Luisa to actually be in the water, which in turn required me to schedule it so that it wouldn’t affect the other photos. And finally, when that became unfeasible (for very real and objectively hindering reasons, unlike someone I may think of), I had to rework the concept around that so it’d still make sense (though it made scheduling easier).

With the sea in Wild Sea representing the inner world and the wave in A Great Wave some anxiety or insecurity to be saved from, the flood in Floods represents the affection and support of a friend which the protagonist is longing for. The new concept thus called for Luisa to reach for the incoming water filling a dry-ish patch of rocks, giving a sense of longing for the titular flooding.

Luckily, by this point I was already sure that the weather would cooperate, the sea be wavy enough for the concept to work, and the light be soft enough to give it a pictorial look without sharp patches of light and strong shades.

There were some challenges in positioning Luisa so that she wouldn’t be too uncomfortable (the operational word being “too”), avoid her scratching herself on the rocks, getting wet from the foam and so on, but in the end we pulled it of and Luisa didn’t complain once, unlike certain so-called “professionals”.

Also of note is that both this and the place where we shot A Great Wave are very public and relatively busy beaches (less so since covid, but there were still people here), so I also had to work around people a little, which fortunately I did without having to murder and then hide anyone in postproduction.

Visually, I used a slightly downward-facing perspective so either the sea or the rocks would fill the entire background. I also deliberately left just a hint of rocks at the very edge on top to give a sense of water flooding an enclosure of sorts, as opposed to open sea. I also gave a strong bluish wash to the highlights and a purplish one to the shadows so that the contrast between the sea and the rocks would be heightened.

On a side note, I’m particularly shady on this post because it offered me a direct contrast to that certain thing that happened three years ago, which affected even the photos that we did manage to take. There were setbacks to work around, there were difficulties and uncomfort to pull through, but we were all committed to the project (me, my model, and even my mother who was there to assist us) so we just did it, and we created yet another artwork we are all proud of!
And for that I’m forever thankful to my team. I can actually look at the lyrics of this song and sing them to Luisa for what she did here to help me restore my confidence in teamwork when the photos put us in less than pristinely smooth situations.