When the Party’s Over

This photograph came together through instinct more than planning. I rarely sketch out makeup looks beforehand; I usually respond to whatever feels right in the moment. That freedom has become an important part of my process because it often leads me somewhere I couldn’t have anticipated. The image began with a bathroom I came across while scouting. It wasn’t the kind of place people stop to admire, but the lighting transformed it completely. For a moment, it felt detached from its everyday purpose. It reminded me of the spaces people disappear into during a night out. Not to leave the world behind, but to step away from it for a minute. To fix their makeup. To look at themselves. To rehearse a conversation. To sit on the floor. To breathe. To make a decision. To become someone else before walking back through the door. Everything else followed from that feeling. The makeup became more experimental, the light became part of the composition, and the portrait slowly became less about a person and more about a state of mind. I enjoy making photographs that don’t arrive with a single answer. My hope is that someone else can stand in front of this image and find something entirely different from what I found while making it.