#TheseSoliloquies – Act I, Scene III: When In Doubt, Wiggle It Out // Cast: Lilly Wang
Act I, Scene III: When In Doubt, Wiggle It Out
Cast: Lilly Wang
Prelude:
It’s crazy how we work. I take that back, actually. How we discover how we work. I’m talking about how our body and souls work. The never-ending acts of trial and error to see what we need to do in order to work best. How we need to sleep. How we need to fuel. How we need to love. How we need to hurt. Express. Listen. Care. Travel. Communicate. And what makes us feel most alive.
If you’ve ever read or listened to any of my stories, prose, poems, music–there's a very, “Yeah, we know Bex, you like to get deep and real into the feels. We get it.” That kind of reaction used to really make me dislike a lot about myself. There was a very negative connotation with it that felt like I was just being a downer. And expressing ways we feel pain in my work felt like extra weight that people didn't want in their lives. I kept feeling that ‘I shouldn’t work that way’. That I needed to discover a new way to write and express myself. Maybe something happier. Yeah, try a new topic. But. That’s fucking bullshit. Because I think we can all agree that it’s more draining and more of a downer to not be you. It may look nice to put on a new hat, follow trends that give you likes, and show the pretty sides of things. But as we know, likes on social doesn’t mean love. And when people say they’re fine, they never really are.
It took me awhile to truly allow myself to know myself. And I still am hesitant at times to share my work. Work that I create and work on myself. I go back and forth with how things might be interrupted and thinking it matters. But in the end, I remind myself that’s just how I work. And that’s okay. It doesn’t mean I’m a sad person and that all I feel is pain. I just specialize in this area. And I love using forms of story to share heartaches that’s relatable, feels real, and make us not stand there alone. There is so much heart in pain. There’s learning, beauty, ugliness, and regret. There is so much we feel and don’t say. And someone should. Why not me?
If you’re lost as to how this relates at all to this shoot. Don’t worry, I’m sure you’re not alone. I tend to give long (and slightly fluffy) backstories before getting into the weeds. Right. So. Act I, Scene III: When In Doubt, Wiggle It Out. It took me a bit to write this post. As you can tell, I was fixating on getting it right and also fearing of how much I wanted to dive into things. But why I’ve been talking about the workings of our beings, is because I got madly inspired after this session with Lilly Wang. Fair warning, she’s about to instantly wiggle her way into your heart. This girl has one freakin’ contagious spirit. A spirit that gets you grooving, open, and so onboard for what’s next. I met Lilly at 2019’s Yeah Field Trip in Marfa, TX, a creative trip/camp/retreat?/conference?/learning and growing weekend full of artists, wanderers, and life-changing minds. Man, I’m the definition of fangirl when it comes to YFT, because this yearly trip always gets me going. Throughout our time there, I constantly saw Lilly across the way in her legendary purple cowboy hat, and we’d always make eye contact at some point and give each other that “oh sup girl” head nod. From there, obviously, friendship was established. Lilly’s mission to humanize mental health has been so interesting to learn about. Her superpower in creating an open space that allows various forms of energy and flow to learn, love, and explore from, truly has me looking, communicating and creating things from different angles. Boy, was that a sentence.
She’s also the mastermind behind #MorningWiggles - encouraging us that ‘when you’re moody, wiggle your booty’.
“On days when you can’t get out of bed and your emotional body is telling you ‘no,’ are you brave enough to remember joy and call upon your innate human resilience? Because we’re here to do the massively human thing of FEELING life and moving our bodies to illuminate our souls”
Needless to say, Lilly is definitely someone you should be friends with, and her fantastic thrifty style made for such a fun shoot. I’d highly encourage y’all to check out the links embedded above to follow her journey and learn more.
Start Scene:
Well. It rained. One might say Lilly was the one who caused it with her fresh dance moves, but who can really say. Our stage for this shoot was in along Hayes Street in San Francisco. (Another location I’ve never shot at until now) Even though the whole street is full of fun and colorful corners, we mainly kept to one or two blocks. For the most part, it never really matters where you do shoots, friends. Everywhere you go, there’s some kind of background that can be a character. And you never have to travel from when and where you take the lens cap off your camera from. It can even be just a couple of steps to your right or left and you’ll get a mix.
Things I found myself really loving about this shoot was the variety, flavor, and eccentricity of it all. I think sometimes, as photographers, we can get stuck in shooting the same way all the time. Not saying we shouldn’t establish a style or voice, but to grow, for example, we can’t have every shot be a zoomed in photograph. You know? Yes, close-up, crisp, detailed shots are kickass and intense, and I love them too. But a person seen as a dot in a giant landscape or even a mistakenly blurred capture, can also be just as stellar. Much of this all depends on how you’re telling a story. But look at what other people are doing. Try out new ways to shoot just one thing. Because when we keep doing the same thing, well, it gets repetitive. And then we, and our viewers, get bored. So I really loved bringing in my space and color into these shots, and having my closer-up, detailed shots feature elements that I just found to be fun or funny. I played a lot with movement–changing from her bouncing around in front of the camera, to me being the one circling around her. All and all, we danced and got vibrant. Calmed down and got intimate. And did it all in platform shoes. (Well, her, not me - I’d fall over instantly)
Check out the handful of images below from our time together, and keep a weather eye on the horizon for the next scene of Act I:
