Van & Raveen | Day in a life | Melbourne
This is about an ordinary and usual weekend of Van & Raveen with their adorable cat, which names Cookie.
Van once told me about her desire of finding someone who could spend time with them and capture their little daily moments of their life. With experience in documentary photography, she felt that her husband & wife’ life had a lot of funny, common & interesting habits, especially their activities in the weekends. They would love to wake up early together to have breakfast, go to the supermarket, head in to the city for some free exhibitions, wander around Ikea showroom, exercise or watch a favorite movie at night… the lists were going on and on as long as all were done together.
After sharing her daily life story and booking me for “day in a life” session, Van was so excited yet worried at the same time since she was afraid that if their usual life could be so interesting, like how she felt, and be worthy for reserving these moments with photograph. Would both of them feel awkward when there was someone interrupts their normal life environment? Or would the photographs be so interesting and meaningful so that years later they could still feel and remember what they had been through at that moment of time?
It was not only their wonders, but it was also my concern. Indeed, it was not easy to stay in a client’s house from dawn to dusk. In this case I slept over Van’s house the day before and started the shoot since they woke up.
Moreover, there were only two main subjects which are Van & Raveen and sometime with their cat, Cookie. The scenes were very calm, hard to exploit in a creative way and involved a lot of changing and unexpected moving. It required me to pay full attention to what was going on around and took risk in every decision I made when framing the subjects. There were time I just sit silently at the corner of the house, observing their behaviors, other time I slowly followed them from behind when they went for a walk or run quickly to the sweet spot and waited for them to come into my frames.
Every photograph was a part of this ordinary story of life that I had carefully put them in order with purpose.
It was an unforgettable experience while traveling around Melbourne. I hoped that in no particular occasion of time in the next 10 years, Van & Raveen could sit back, open these photographs again and really get excited like their first time seeing these moments. If it could be like what I wish, I would feel so completed and accomplished with the value of photographs that I deliver to two of them. It will enhance my belief in what I am pursuing as a documentary photographer.
Thank you Van & Raveen again for trusting in me and let me freely capturing in a way that I love and long for. Thank you for taking care of me during the time I stay in Melbourne. Much appreciation and sincere.
Full Slideshow here: link
