Feb 4, 2016

WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR - Paul Kalanithi

At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, the next he was a patient struggling to live.

Lottie Davies, the cover photographer, gives a behind-the-scenes view of a commission.

“I was sent a clear brief, all the details had to be considered in order to make sure the photographs reflected the mood and intention of the idea. The best ideas are often very simple, which requires me as a photographer to have a light touch, while making sure that everything is present in the image. 

For the shoot we needed a surgeon’s gown, mask and hat, and a patient’s examination gown. The key was that each image, would feature a tied bow, so that defined my costume search. I searched in the US and UK, but it was hard to find patients’ gown with ties, so I ended up sewing them on myself. 

We shot the photographs in the ‘Wellbeing Room’ at Random House, I brought in a background, lights and so on. We had our actor, and my stylist Conrad came to cut the hair to exactly the style we needed. I had an idea to give the images an extra touch, which was to take a few frames on large format film, using my 5"x4" Wista field camera. It’s a beautiful thing, made with brass and rosewood, and with a few sheets of Kodak negative film, it makes lovely photographs. Without getting all technical, large format film has a softness, a clarity and a quality which digital just hasn’t reached yet, in my opinion. Yes, it’s fiddly, but it’s worth it, I think. And happily, Vintage agreed.”

Breath Becomes Air is out today and published by Bodley Head for more information here is a short video

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