One lonely window open to the night in Portland. Canon EOS EF 50mm at f/1.4 1/60 ISO 800

The cigarette hangs from the edge of her lip barely there until she inhales and it plants itself more firmly between her lips. She inhales deeply and looks down towards the placemat covered milk crate that stands in for an end table. The wobbly lamp that sits on top of the placemat has all of the strength that she feels in her bones. The ragged breath and the too early age that rests on her tired shoulders bespeak a much older woman. And here she is, alone.

I was sitting on the fire escape of my hotel enjoying the night air and the energy of the city as it rose up to meet me. I was sitting with my camera, casting about for the right image when I looked across the street and saw someone sitting in their window without any blinds. It immediately struck me as a very strongly graphic image. The frame, of course, included more than the four windows pictured above but I framed the picture with a square cropping in mind. There were closed windows all around the person but chose to put the them in the bottom right because she appears to be looking off to the left and I wanted her looking into the centre of the frame. The loneliness of the person sitting alone in the window is accentuated by the four closed windows. The picture didn’t look like much in colour but converting it to black and white gave it more power. I really like the way that the light spilling upwards from the street accentuates the texture of the brick wall.

-Russell Berg