Senjougahara

A lightweight crab.

Bakemonogatari is a word that melds together the Japanese words for “Monster” and “Story”. The story is that of monsters, indeed, albeit an abstract of one. Much of the animation is head-tilting to observe and the varied perspectives break free of any restraints most artists will place upon themselves. It is a reminder that things don’t need to make sense on the surface.

There was a great degree of playing with color and contrast in this photoshoot. I wanted notable separation of lights and darks while also making color prominent in juxtaposition. I wasn’t always successful, but many photographs in this shoot convey similar aesthetics to those rendered in the anime by Shaft Studios. Purple and yellow especially found use in the color grading, playing off of the cosplay’s colors. This shoot was done as most of my photography, with natural lighting. I looked for areas with interesting shadows or highlights and made use of them. I then accentuated in post to reach what I saw in my head.

I very much wanted this shoot to come off as a framework from video. I cropped images to 21:9 and left black bars to fill out 16:9. Many of the photographs include subtitles that are quotes from the anime. Photos were taken with the concept of being combined into a sequence, rather than individual images. Additionally, I utilized other photos and assets to create a timeline akin to the anime. It is a notable aspect for the anime to flash subliminal texts and cut from characters to empty stairwells or doorways during dialogue. There are also many extreme close-ups of lips and eyes, along with other parts of a person.

Shooting on my 35mm lens is a rare thing, but I stuck with it on my D800 for the entirety of this shoot. Going wide opened up a number of options as we shot in closed spaces, much of which indoors. The Nikkor 35mm F/2 I was using also has a focus range of just under 12”, allowing me to get fairly close to my subject. Wide open, the lens gets satisfying bokeh and the barrel distortion works in favor of this style. The 35mm is also quite sharp with solid contrast, especially for being around 50 years old. The Nikon D800 is a very capable DSLR, but felt out of place alongside the Nikon FM2/T I was shooting concurrently. The film photos can be found here.