“A Day in Isolation”
For this project I decided to head in the deep forest of Lithuania to find an old lady living there. Her story caught my attention straight away – all her life, since she was born, she lived in that same cabin. She never saw the world, the sea, cities, she never experienced what most teenagers or adults experience, she never had relationships, never had kids. On the other hand, she had different struggles - she saw history unfolding before her own eyes when Russians occupied Lithuania, she experienced starvation, cold, near death experiences. She never felt alone or sad, sometimes the old lady had visitors who brought her food and kept company, she appreciated every single minute talking. I spent a day with this woman hearing her life stories and trying to capture some of her surroundings.
“Step Into The Deep Forest”
The first photo tried to portray the start of the day and the location of the chosen subject – forest. Instead of leaving a plain photo of the road I used a balanced combination of 4 images. The composition is symmetric and centric, I wanted this photo to have a feel of the misty morning, a road that you want to follow and see what is out there. The lines of the road do that and viewers eyes follow them to the middle.
“Hidden Cabin”
In the second photo the old ladies cabin itself can be seen, thus the story jumps from being in the forest to the exact location. For this photograph I joined two images together - the cabin as the main focus and overlapping tree shadows on top of the house adding more to an image. Style was kept the same. The main goal for this image to make viewer uncomfortable, uneasy.
“Solitude”
Third image is a portrait of the old lady inside the dark cabin as a main subject, no other distractions. The moment caught is very expressive and still. Woman’s closed eyes and a silent smile represents happiness, awareness of being alone and appreciating time for yourself, it almost screams “gratitude”. This portrait should start moving viewer from a scared feeling to a warmer one.
“Greenhouse”
Fourth image is of the greenhouse - one of the activities an old lady occupies herself throughout the days. This one has a warm feeling, bright contrast and vibrant colours, two different layers complement each other creating a warm atmosphere. This image is supposed to be grasped all together, no main focus in place, just the overall feel – the smell of tomatoes in the greenhouse, dirt, warm sunlight rays.
“Beekeping”
Fifth image is made of completely two different images split in half. This one represents another big activity of the day in isolation – beekeeping. I took a wide shot of the hives and a close-up of a bee using big depth of field. I joined two photographs in post-production, separating them both in half, this created a composition that is symmetric, clean and aesthetic.
“Company”
The last image concluded my project showing the company the lady had in the cabin - the old man who came to live with her at the older age, and a small cat. Darker setting for this image represented the end of the day and the end of the project.