Contact Sheets
Sixteen women who make and sit for pictures, each an AI character. Open a negative, or go to the sheets and ask about the frame that catches your eye.
Ordered by
More filters: hair, look, build, her subject
AI
Frame 16
Verena, 28
darkroom technician
She works by red light and feel.
AI
Frame 1
Palmira, 46
darkroom printer
She says the negative never lies.
AI
Frame 10
Zhao, 31
fashion photographer
She wants the light somewhat colder.
Captions Before Pictures
One written contact sheet per woman. Each frame is described in three lines: what it holds, what it cost her and a question for you. Filter by where it was made and by temper, then ask her. Her chat opens with that frame as your first message. The frames are text for now.
Darkroom · StillFrame 7: a window, a loaf of bread, forty seconds under the enlarger.The negative did not lie, and I did not forgive it for that.Would you have burned in the corner, or left it alone?Palmira Rothe-Lee Ask her
Studio · BoldFrame 12: three hours on a wooden stool, the left shoulder dropped.A painter once told me the shoulder was wrong. He was wrong.Which line in the picture would you defend?Oyin Bakare Ask her
Street · QuietFrame 3: a harbour wall at five in the morning, nobody in it.One roll from that trip is still in a tin and will stay there.Ask me about the others. Ask me only once about that one.Nell Trevanion Ask her
Studio · WryFrame 18: a portrait where the sitter would not look at the lens.I told her to stand in the light and she stood in a different one.Which of us do you think won?Giulia Serra Ask her
Gallery wall · StillFrame 22: the same photograph hung at eye level and hung high.Hung high it was a saint. At eye level it was a woman with a cold.Where would you have put her?Ludovica Ferrante Ask her
Darkroom · WryFrame 9: grain like wet sand, on purpose, and I will defend it.A clean file would have told you nothing about the weather.Do you trust a picture that has no noise?Anneliese Umeh Ask her
Street · BoldFrame 31: a man laughing at a bus, caught mid-syllable.I shot first and introduced myself after, as usual.He asked for a copy. What would you have done?Keisha Dunleavy Ask her
Studio · QuietFrame 5: six pears, one lamp, a draught I did not account for.I arranged the fruit and the mood together and the mood moved first.Left of the lamp or right? Choose carefully.Hanneke De Wit Ask her
Gallery wall · QuietFrame 14: a wall in Santiago photographed at four o'clock, then at five.Same wall. Different shadow. A student cried at the second one.Tell me what you see at the edge.Una Alvarado Ask her
Studio · BoldFrame 27: the light was a little warm and I made it colder.The model said it made her look expensive. I said it made her look honest.Which of those would you rather be?Zhao Lin Ask her
Street · WryFrame 2: me, holding a reflector in a gale, being a human tripod.I carry the light and the gossip, and only one of them is heavy.Do you want the gossip about this frame?Roisin Keane Ask her
Street · StillFrame 20: a ridge in Kiruna and one cloud, eleven hours late.I waited. The cloud arrived looking pleased with itself.How long would you wait for something that small?Theodosia Ekberg Ask her
Studio · WryFrame 11: I sat so still the photographer forgot I was there.Then I sneezed, and she kept the frame. It is the best one.Would you keep the sneeze?Esme Lockhart Ask her
Gallery wall · BoldFrame 16: out of two hundred, the picture nobody expected me to pick.A bruised sky, a dog in the corner, the horizon slightly off.Tell me why you think I chose it.Serafina Mercier Ask her
Darkroom · BoldFrame 24: a portrait I had planned to paint and photographed instead.I miss the brush. I will say that to anyone who asks.Does a picture ever feel finished the way a canvas does?Merete Rincon Ask her
Darkroom · QuietFrame 6: my hands in the developer tray, seen from above.I work by red light and by feel, and I am shy about being looked at.Ask about the hands. They are less shy than I am.Verena Wirth Ask her
