The Attack of the Giant Spider

 

For this studio assignment, graded as final exam in my Studio Lightning Class of Fall 2025 (Diablo Valley College, with Nicole White), I knew I wanted to photograph my daughter but also photograph WITH her, like a photographer I admire (Andrew Rovenko). 

Even if I kept using vintage props, I wanted to tell a story. It has to be a bit wild – like a 7-year-old imagination-, amusing, suspenseful, conflictual (no story without conflicts), and be told without words – so it had to be very visual, like a Tarantino movie for kids. Images spontaneously came to my mind, without even overthinking them – I chose to follow that path. 

I imagined a small series of 8 black and white photos, with my daughter’s help, telling the story of a girl (dressed in 70’s clothes) whose car breaks out in the Western desert, giving a phone call for help, and making it to a gas station. Yet, there is a giant spider lurking in a corner – and it attacks her. She fights back with a sword (the story does not tell where she gets it from, which gives it, among other things, a surrealist twist – I have been inspired in that by the b&w surrealist photos from Lee Miller). Fortunately, the girl defeats the beast and can finally rest (I will recrate a Lee Miller photo with a mirror for that), like the heroin of the movie Kill Bill who cries in a bathroom after her epic struggles.

I shot the first series below on film (Rolleiflex + Nikon FM2), with Kodak Tri-X films.