ACTING THROUGH A NEW LENS
Charmaine Au-Yeung
My camera strap tugs against my collar whilst I observe the stage. It’s an intense five minutes of Irish dancing, and I am in awe of my castmates as I watch them effortlessly form beautiful shapes. From the wings I attempt to snap the kicks done in cannon. It is almost impossible for my camera to keep up with the precise, fast movements, and whilst I long to keep working at it I realise my entrance is close. I therefore gently place my camera offstage, before stepping out to give a performance as a ‘jury member’.
Theatre is an old friend, and I am an actor by trade. Actor-slash-photographer, however, is a new job. I knew I wanted a camera when I was 15, but only purchased my first one, second-hand, last February. I stumbled into my first theatrical shoot when a production I was in needed a photographer. At that point, I was absolutely certain that all of my photos would be blurry and underexposed, and I was terrified I would do a bad job. But as I settled into the gig, that uncertainty eventually calmed, morphing into excitement.
Theatrical photography is now an official side gig, and it has made me a better actor. Milliseconds pass slower and more thoughtfully, and I’m sensitive to the shapes drawn by flicks of the hair, precise angles cast by eyebrows, and the mood shifts of a piece. ‘Yes,’ I think, ‘that would make a good shot’. But, equally, I also think that every shot is an acting lesson – photography draws my eye to each granular, unique decision different actors make on stage. Acting is hard work, and photography lays bare its individuality.
This article first appeared in PRISMA, Issue 10.