Come. Join Me in Bed.

I started taking pictures of the beds I was sleeping in on a lark.

Then it became something more … a consideration on the question of HOME. What is HOME? This ongoing series, “Fetal Position and Drool” has become a strange companion piece to “Wok the Dog”. Both series are confined to a very specific subject matter, and it is a challenge to see how I can interpret, reinterpret, the same subject matters over and over again and still present interesting images.

Some of the shots of the beds / bunks that I spend a night on are more a matter of documenting. On trains and buses, I am in a tightly confined space so there is not a lot I can do to move about for different angles. Other times, there is a little room to play, leeway to investigate the options of how to shoot a bed differently.

In India, I found myself in a lot of beds with white sheets, white pillows, white everything.  The monotony of the bedding drove the images to be more abstracted with an emphasis on textures, wrinkles and details rather than on the exact feeling of a bed.

Other times, the monotony of the white beds is broken up by the color of my sarong, which I often use as a blanket in hot climates.

Everything is shot with available light which allows for interesting manifestations that are unexpected, such as the pink hue of the image above which is a result of the color glassed windows.

Shooting with an existing light source also makes you pay close attention to what the light is doing. I was struggling to find an interesting angle on the bed below. Then I saw the lines of light on the wall. The light helped define the composition, and made the shot for me.

The two images below become about the printed patterns and the wrinkled sheets. The overhead angle flattens out the bed and sheets and forces it all onto one plane. It disorients the eye for a second, but it holds you there a second longer so you can figure out what it is you are looking at.

Thank you for joining me on this strange journey through India via the places I’ve dreamed, drooled and sweated through the night in the sweltering heat.

[ Travel Tip ] – A sarong is a very useful thing to travel with. You can use it as a sheet if you don’t think the beds you are sleeping in are clean, a light blanket, another towel to wrap yourself in when leaving the shared bathroom. There are many uses for a sarong on the road. It’s light and dries quickly.

Click here to see the full series of “Fetal Position and Drool.”

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