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I first saw Nightwatcher in the summer of 2010. Now, five years later, this image still haunts me. It is one of the very few I am able to see with my eyes closed. Jee Ra is an amazing woman, less because of her beautiful form or striking facial features, but because of an inner radiance that is clearly evident in every image she shares with us. A model for fashion, fetish, and art photographers, there is something about her that remains visible, that cannot be hidden or subverted by anyone. She is intensely human, intensely female, displaying every emotion possible. An actress, she is brave enough to look within and show us her emotions past and present.
The composition and lighting of this photograph are quite striking. The light is singularly restricted to the model, herself, barely illuminating the background. But what a background, apparently a dark wooden wall with beautifully executed Asian calligraphy carved into it. As a calligrapher, myself, I am interested in this choice of setting, something clearly resonating with her heritage. Underlit, the background fades to black toward the bottom of the image, yet Jee Ra remains illuminated and radiant.
The lovely fan hides most of the model, reminiscent of a fan dancer of the burlesque halls, yet it carries artwork clearly associated with the calligraphy behind her and in her genes. She is curled up as if hiding behind this screen, but like a child playing hide and seek, she is peek out from behind the fan and looking directly at us. Athletically poised, weight balanced on her toes, ready to rise and run for safety. How many women have hidden like this throughout history!?
Considerable time and effort have been spent on body art. She is covered with a stain reducing her skin to a palette of black, white and grays, while a pattern of lines resembling the craquelure or an old oil painting. What a contrast, the fan and the wall apparently modern and the nymph from an old painting. But ... shining black latex sleeves drag us back to the present, an apparently ancient image living in the now.
I am still not sure what to make of this image that seems to weld the past to the future. Partially hidden, poised to flee, I suddenly see the plight of millions of women in the here and now. Yet who knows what was in her mind as she composed, lit, and framed, this image. There are so many elements in harmony with each other it hard to know what was intentional and what a product of her unconscious sensitivity and empathy. For instance, the curve of her back and the curve of her fan.
What ever the answer, this is an image that burns itself into the psyche. Totally unforgettable.