Photographed and Written By: Kristin Wnukowski

 
The fire burns me and soon I will die. Sweat drips down my body from the heat. Memories flash by as vibrant as the flames. The pain on my skin mirrors the hurt of leaving my loved ones forever…
Is this person standing in the middle of fire?  No. One afternoon in a room only lit by a strand of Christmas lights, I captured this photograph.  I mounted my Canon camera on a tripod, put a wide-angle lens on it and plugged in one strand of Christmas lights. A friend jumped rope with the strand of lights causing flashes of light to come and go like the light from a fire. After shooting, I used Photoshop to enhance the colors to help the effect look like flames igniting around the person. In the editing process, I made sure the girl didn’t show an identity and the light surrounding her was the main focus. In doing this, the viewer focuses on the photo as a whole to try to decide what is happening vs. trying to figure out who is in the photo.