“Song to Forget”
50mm - f 2.2 - 1/400
ISO: 400
“Destination Anywhere”
50mm - f 4 - 1/320
ISO: 400
Ophelia has been interpreted through many
artistic mediums, but for this photographer,
it is her mortality, as well as her duality and
the polarizing viewpoints she faced, that are
expressed through his portraits of women
submerged in water. Through Echwantono’s
lens, Ophelia represents both innocent
femininity and a serene submission to death.
Her demise has been romanticized through
fine art depictions by John Everett Millais,
Eugene Delacroix and Cabanel, yet despite the
tragedy of her unfortunate end, she reflects an
everlasting beauty.
“Sadness and darkness are inherently related.
There is a certain romance in darkness and
melancholy, and a mysterious quality about that
which is hidden and unknown,” Echwantono
explains of the atmosphere he created for
Ophelia, “Perhaps the darkness in my images
seeks to romanticize sadness and depression.”
The Ophelia series by Echwantono presents
an interesting relationship between the viewer,
photographer and model. The gaze of the
subject never acknowledges the viewer, as if the
lens were a portal into her private, introspective
sphere, a privacy not shared between the
photographer and model, but kept within
herself. Witnessing a moment of intentional
solitude, we spy a girl alone with her thoughts-
-a quiet pause from life that all viewers can
relate to emotionally and appreciate.
Wavering gently in the water, the subject
drifts with the femininity of long, delicate
gowns. Floating quietly underwater, she moves
with the current of the waves, captured at times
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