APARTMENT
“Apartment” series is a wonderful example of hand painted and glazed photographs in a dream like setting. These hand painted photographs are a romantic synthesis of classic image and atmospherics, merging all of your senses. The apartment series was first inspired by black and white film noir in the fifties. Not particularly cinematic or big in scope these gritty films were small but quite theatrical. Single locations served the story and dialogue throughout the film. Moody and dramatic lighting set the emotional tone for the story. It is with this manifesto that Small built his own apartment set in his studio made from portable walls and old doors and windows. With multiple overhead spot lights Small re-created the intensity of those early dramas using light and shadow to design the photograph. Working with the nude as a provocative image he directed each individual pose to reveal story. The apartment series evokes the complex emotions of desire, despair, anticipation, love and loneliness.
