05-2020

Half Awake, Half Asleep


Model. Mar Castañedo

The situation right now is challenging us as creative people to find new ways of expression. As a photographer and filmmaker I am always curious and interested in experiments. I met Mar, a lovely model from Mexico, through Instagram. Our collaboration came about by chance and proved to me that being creative is not restricted by physical distance or different time zones. When we skyped, it was late evening for her and early morning for me. But it did not matter, we both enjoyed doing this project together.

To outline the story: it is about a girl who is trapped at home having bizarre visions of herself. Nightmarish visions resulting from her isolation and born in the liminal space between being awake and asleep. I like the idea of the pictures being stills from a long-forgotten, experimental horror or mystery film. I like their expressive and ambiguous quality. The blurriness was created by me using a special lens while capturing the screen. Other effects came through her covering the webcam with semitransparent fabric. I was really surprised how well this worked out. It was a collaborative effort in its best sense.

The story has been published by Fashion Grunge and was shortlisted for Athens Photo Festival 2020
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