


A concrete stairwell, one flight, seen from the bottom looking up along the diagonal of the steps, camera low at floor level. Hard daylight comes from a single window at the top of the flight so the stairs are dark and everything is backlit; she is coming down, caught mid-stride, lit from behind and the brightest thing in the frame, her spine long and turned, one arm out with the hand sliding along the steel handrail, her head down watching her feet. Her garment is clear running water cut as a long gown: a straight neckline, a waist seam, and above that seam it holds its shape on her - but from the hips down it stops holding and has become one wide sheet of water pouring over the next three steps, breaking white at every edge. The steps below her are running with it, the steps she has already passed are dark and wet, the handrail drips behind her hand, and a wide flat pool has spread across the floor at the bottom of the frame nearest the camera. The stair nosings cross the picture as hard bright diagonals. Backlit, single source, high contrast, deep focus, everything sharp. Her wet dark auburn hair is pushed back off her face. Everything else in one narrow range of pale stone, wet plaster and grey linen; her skin and the water are the only bright things in the picture. Matte surfaces, no polish. Fine 35mm film grain. In the lower right corner, a large pencil signature in looping script, clearly visible: Ziggy






