Having worked 5 years in a cubicle, portraying the monotonous life of an 8 to 5 employee comes as a natural thing. This time I chose to use the language of colors to highlight the monotony of the routine faced in such an environment.

I was confused between picking a boring grey tone versus a shiny mint one. The mint, a tone of green, would remind of the power of money. Also a symbol of nature and life, it would add an ironic touch to the image. I also thought that mint is more appealing to the eye than grey. Experimenting is a big part of my process and I might retry the experience with a grey office. I wanted to create a set dominated by horizontal lines. So I went to different junkyards around the country and picked the most rectangular office furniture pieces. I brought them back with me to the studio, where my assistant and I painted them all in mint. The process of laboring my way to build the set is what most fulfills me in what I do. I could’ve worked on coloring an already made office on photoshop, but the act of bringing different pieces together and painting them into my own imaginary office is the part that I enjoy the most. The character Jack inside the office is meant to look like one of the objects inside the office so he had to be wearing mint as well. Not able to find a suit with the desired color in stores, I ended up asking a tailor to customize a mint suit for me.

Once my set was built, it was time to work on the lighting. Having in hand my two Siros L, my Octabox 150, and a Softbox 90x120. I had to light up the scenes with those materials, which was convenient because I was looking for a soft diffused light. I placed the Octabox on the left for the key light and the 90x120 Softbox behind me as a fill light. I will repeat the shoot placing the Octabox on top of the scene but I wasn’t able to do it this time due to the lack of a tall stand. Finally, at the end of the shoot, I tried a few photos with a filter in front of my lens, which was a piece of plastic sheet, which gave a hazy and nostalgic feel.

These photos are the first experiment of work in progress. I will try different lighting sets soon with new materials and will share them with you and compare the results! Stay tuned.