Mark: Mimi still loves Roger. Is Roger really jealous or afraid that Mimi's weak

Roger: Mimi did look pale

Mark: Mimi's gotten thin. Mimi's running out of time. Roger's running out the door--

Roger: No more! Oh no! I've gotta go.

Mark: Hey! For someone who's always been let down who's heading out of town?

Roger: For someone who longs for a community of his own, who's with his camera, alone? I'll call. I hate the fall. (Mimi enters) You heard?

Mimi: Every word. You don't want baggage without lifetime guarantees. You don't want to watch me die? I just came to say goodbye love, goodbye love

If you'd like to see how part of the scene turned out check it out here. James Dean as Roger, Kody Dennison as Mark, and Micalla Wallace as Mimi

If you would like to see more portraits that I have done of my actors check here, here, here, and here

My theatre club did a production of RENT this year and as we cast the show I wanted a Mimi that was able to express a fragility and vulnerability beneath a thin crust of self-confidence. This young actor quickly found this in her work with the character and I feel like this photograph captures that. Mimi is watching from the background as Roger, the man she is in love with, explains to his friend why he can’t be around her, why he can’t watch her die. (Mimi has AIDS.) Mimi is trapped by her health, trapped by her relationship with Roger, trapped by her addictions, and trapped by her poverty. As she enters the stage near the end of the musical she sees the last of her hope whither up and float away in the autumn wind. We put her at the back of the stage to hear Roger’s last words about her where the metaphorical bars of her existence are made real in the bars of the scaffolding. Probably, there were very few people in the audience who saw her standing there in the background but for me this image, and the character that this actor brings to it, encapsulates everything about who Mimi is. I shot it in very low light so it was very grainy and unattractive as a colour image so I imported it into Silver Efex Pro and as a grainy B&W it had exactly the kind of gritty intensity that fit the scene.

-Russell Berg