A Growing Duty: A Narrative Character Portrait by Anastasia Garachtchenko (2014)

In my photo I have my main character, Eevven, looking over towards a mushroom she is pouring mist on. In front of her lies a drawing of a butterfly. In my story Eevven is a forest elf whose duty is growing mushrooms. After she stumbles upon a butterfly she dreams of being able to fly, starting an internal struggle between her duty of growing mushrooms and her aspirations. I chose to photograph her this way because I wanted to show her indecision between the two. I wanted to have the photo contain a lot of contrast which is why I chose white paper and white mist with the black backdrop. Her face contains a look of reluctance as she performs her duty instead of pursuing her dream, which helps establish the fact that she is unhappy and longs for a different path in life. The overall picture creates a mood of unhappiness with an ever growing hope for a better future.