I took this photo walking home from a "30 Plays" rehearsal late at night. It was about 1am. What is so striking for me about this photo is both the photo itself as well as the memory that it holds. I remember at that moment, every light in my plane of view just turned red all in sync simultaneously: the car's tail lights ahead of me, the stop lights, and the whole street was just filled with a blood red hue shimmering all around the street. Although it was freezing and the streets were desolate and barren, there was a warm, electrifying energy that filled the immediate environment. As a result, I was overcome with some comfortably frisky vibes.
In speaking to the imagery of the photo, I absolutely love how there is an immediate repetition of blaring red light plastered among the foreground, all possessing different textures, yet all piercing in visual quality as well. Much to the brooding blackness of the dreary clouds blanketing the night, the stark presence of the red light screams at you and sends a cacophony of signals implying danger, sin, and intrigue (somewhat like the feeling of proceeding through an alley of a city's red light district). All the while, reaching out in the distance is a hint of welcoming green light, suggesting an escape to a hopeful and/or prosperous environment beyond the block flooded by red preceding it. When I see this photo, I feel an external emptiness accompanied by an ambiguous wave of internal fulfillment; to say whether this fulfillment is positive ore negative, I'm not sure.
What I appreciate as well as am inspired by most in this photo includes it's possession of red. Evidently, red is extremely powerful, not only as a pigment used on clothing/objects/paint, but particularly used as a hue in lighting. Moreover, the relationship between red and other hues of the color spectrum also ignites my curiosity and imagination of how the human brain responds to color. There's something about red that evokes what absolutely no other color can and the ambiguity of what that thing is what makes the color so riveting. The way it fills and floods a space can tell such intriguing stories and evoke potent emotional responses; it makes me admire how red, if used effectively, can make absolutely badass visual achievements in theatrical lighting design.
Very nice detailed post. One of the reasons the red is so powerful here as well is the darkness around it and the other colors - too often designers want to represent emotion in red so they make the whole stage red and the eye cannot process it - these pops of red is so much more effective - nice post!
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