5. Luisa

Today, I was on a quest. On a day like today, when the city is securely tucked under a thick blanket of clouds and the temperatures are high enough for snow to become slush, Zurich dresses in dark, somber and distinctly grayish tones. I wanted to find a speck of color and try to capture it in a way that shows the power and visual strength it commands. This turned out to be a challenging exercise, because it severely cut down on the number of people that I allowed myself to approach. Interestingly enough, most of the people I did ask were interested and would probably have stayed for a chat, had they not been otherwise engaged - obviously, in my desire to catch the remaining daylight, I had picked a less than optimal time of day.

Luisa turned out to be not just wearing a colorful scarf - she's also a colorful character! She patiently listened to me as I tried to explain what this project is about, and when I had finished, she just asked: "italiano?". She had understood what I asked of her, but was concerned she might not be able to explain her views on life in swiss-german. My italian is worse than patchy, but there was no question - I wanted to try to make the conversation work across the language barrier. Luisa had a lot of insightful views about life, love and spirituality to share - and whenever I was not sure that I had understood, we switched languages. We both tried to accommodate our vis-à-vis, she in her broken german and I in my shattered italian.

I took 26 pictures while we were talking, and Luisa kept me on my toes. Her conversation is a very physical one - she likes to move, and she seeks closeness to her dialogue partner and a central position in their visual field. I, on the other hand, needed enough distance to compose a meaningful picture and wanted to explore different visual angles, leading to a somewhat contradictory movement which had us dancing a little dance. The photo I selected captures the essence of our confabulation and of Luisas lovely, friendly and at the same time strong and arresting personality.

Things I need to learn:
While walking around makes for a larger selection of people to portray, it makes controlling and composing the background much more difficult.

Luisa: thank you very much for your insights and your good wishes - I hope you get a chance to see your portrait on the internet...