Final Images and Poem

When I was given the brief I tried looking at several poems and songs but really wanted to challenge myself so decided to use a poem. I wanted to keep with the theme of dance and thought what ever poem I found I could use with dancers. I found this poem called "Holding On And Never Letting Go" (as seen below) I found the poem moving and deep. When I approached my friend I explained that I would like to use this poem for inspiration in one of her dances. Her and her dance partner David created this dance and performed it while I captured them. I wanted to capture them as they performed, that way I could capture the true emotion of the dance. 

My chosen poem

Holding On, And Never Letting Go!

For a moment,

A cursed moment,

I thought of life

Without you, love.

And darkness,

Was all I saw

As my heart gave up

On love;

My breath

On life;

My mind

on sanity.

I made a

Mountain

Out of a

Molehill.

I allowed peeking eyes

And misunderstood words

To cause me to flee.

I left my love

Behind,

Wondering,

Wondering

And longing…

And myself,

I was dying.

My feet

Followed

Illusions,

Not our hearts…

And I

Nearly lost you.

If there were no God

No heaven, no hell,

Then suicide

Would have been my way.

For life without you,

Seems worse than death.

And without you,

I don’t exist…

You are me…

I am you…

My smiles… you are!

My love,

My wife,

Thank you,

My grip on you is tighter

I’m holding onto you!

I would never let go.

I love you!

Copyright ©2010 Leslie Alexis

Leslie Alexis

The six images are inspired by the poem “Hold On, And Never Letting Go” by Leslie Alexis. The poem describes the loss of a loved one and the emotions. The two dancers performed a routine inspired by the poem and the movement symbolises what the metaphors within the poem are trying to say. I normally work in a studio environment but I wanted to have the freedom and space outside. I have performed a few times and have always been interested in dance that it why my images are based around dancers and there performance. Instead of asking the performers to pose for the camera I captured them as they performed there routine so I can get their emotions and movement without them looking to fake and posed, allowing the audience to feel the emotions from the dancers. The use of fabric was introduced because in a previous brief I worked with dancers and the use of fabric and wanted to continue this theme but wanted to branch more to capturing the performance than staged like the photographer Bruce Monk when capturing his images of dancers. 

Below are my chosen six images. 

As a visual, symbolic, illustration of the poem “Holding on and Never Letting GO” by Leslie Alexis, the image presented, captures the peace and pain associated with death. The poem tells the story of a woman and her partner learning that she will soon die, and furthermore, of the pain that they are experiencing with the thought of being separated. The image above is to symbolise when the male just finds out that his partner is dieing. She is facing away from him as she cannot tell him but then she begins to start fading and as she falls he grabs hold on to her. The image is slightly darker than the images below as this is to symbolise when the male find outs and his worlds starts to go dark from finding out the love of his life is dieing. 

The image creates the impression of her rising up towards the peaceful white sky, which is symbolic of heaven, however, her partner holding on and almost pulling her back down toward him. By capturing the image during their dance routine, it helped create the illusion of her rising up and the partner pulling her down, instead of him holding her weight up. With the momentum during their routine, the image exhibits a ‘lighter’ lift, as though she is rising, and reaching toward heaven, with him pulling her down; holding on to her and reluctant to let his love leave him.

The above image symbolically relates to Leslie Alexis’ poem, “Holding on and Never Letting Go”. The couple dancing represents the woman in the poem who has learnt that she is dying, and furthermore, her partner who is having difficulty with coming to terms with her inevitable death.  The image was taken whilst they were dancing so as to best capture the emotional tension between them. The light sky in the background, being symbolic of heaven, together with the open space in which the dancers have been photographed, helps to portray the intimacy that they are experiencing. This openness leads to the idea of an enormous world, but yet, that particular emotionally tense, intimate moment is theirs, and only theirs. Nothing except for the pure isolation of their love, and the special moment that they’re sharing as they are about to be separated, matters. The black clothing, whilst helping to create a focus point by contrasting with the light background, is also representative of the mourning of the relationship that’s about to be severed, in addition to emotional darkness that the partner may experience after her death.

Presented, is an image representative of the poem: “Holding on and Never Letting Go” by Leslie Alexis. With the light, wide open space, audiences are able to focus on the dancers, who dressed in black, both draw attention to themselves and exhibit a theme of mourning and distress. Although their black attire contributes to a ‘darker’ atmosphere, there is a subtle hint of peace as the female dancer seems almost at rest as she floats back in a restful manner. The calm wind creates the illusion of her drifting away, almost as though suspended in midair as she rises up to heaven, which is represented by the pure white sky. It appears as though her partner is reluctant to let her go, holding onto her even though she seems to be almost trying to ‘let go’; her partner is resisting her inevitable death. 

The poem describes a situation in which a woman, who is represented in the image, is dying and her partner, being unable to come to terms with the reality of her death in the near future, leads to her inability to find peace to move on. Ultimately, she feels bounded by him and their love, which, in the current image, is represented by the flowing fabric. The fabric, as positioned, whilst being representative of her partner’s love, also creates the flowing image of her leaving her partner behind and moving up into heaven, which is represented by the pure white sky.  The fabric and positioning of her body is intended to take the focus away from her facial expressions and the emotions she may be feeling, but lead audiences to focus more on the symbolic nature of the fabric.



The image above is the final of the series. The image symbolises that her partner has comes to terms with her dieing and she feels that she can now let go and move towards the light and rest in peace. The camera angle is lower and her hands are behind her back so that it makes her look bigger and more confident and ready to move towards the light.

Overall I am happy with the shoot. I decided to use a series of images from the shoot as I feel I captured the emotion as they performed and fits well with the poem I have chosen. I only used four images in my exhibition as I felt they were the strongest images an explained the story of the poem best.