I particularly liked the intersection of the darkness with the warm amber shades of the interior lighting. The glare from the exterior lights created some interesting highlights on the polished metal, and the reflections in the glass doors mirrored back the outside world.As I started shooting this series of photographs, I considered myself an insider to the place I was portraying. Before being admitted to the film program, I was an IR major and spent a lot of time in the SWKT. I've been through every door and around every dead-end corner in the building, and during winter I often plot my home-bound course through the SWKT to have a few moments of warmth before heading back out into the chill. Even my work office was in the building. I felt like the place was almost a legitimate second home for me. During shooting, however, I encountered a number of individuals who seemed to question my purpose and intentions, and I realized that the students who trickled out of the building with geography and political science textbooks in hand viewed me as an outsider, viewed me undoubtedly as a troublemaker who needed to be given some homework to do. The students who had just completed class or were heading home after finishing work and studying likely viewed me as a curiosity, if not a minor inconvenience to their departure (although honestly, while I was shooting, only one guy out of the ~30 people who entered and exited those doors checked to see if they were messing up my shot or if it was ok to walk in front of me).
Shooting this photo essay helped me understand a little better what it means to be an outsider, whether that's in relation to a person, a process, or a place. Maybe if I had done my shooting while I entered and exited the building, I might have been telepathically scolded a little less...ehh, prolly not.
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