Sin + Seraphim

Explanation For the second post of 2023 we have the group Sin + Seraphim. Before talking about the picture, I want to talk about Sin + Seraphim as a group. Sin + Seraphim is perhaps more of a musical drama type group as opposed to a band. There's definitely more of a theatrical element to their show than many other groups out there, as I hope will be apparent through the next few posts and some of the other pictures on this roll.

In terms of their actual music though, it's got a very atmospheric and dark sound. I often feel that musical genres are really reductive ways of describing music. While many bands can fit cleanly into genres and their respective tropes, other bands and musicians are less easily representable. Simply increasing the number of genres with increasingly silly and overwrought modifiers doesn't really help.

All that to say that, of course, it's a bit complicated. Clearly from their visual stylings, they lean more towards the gothic type styling. Their music has some of that feeling. By that, I mean that there's a lot of darkness and emotional depth to their music that's less apparent in a lot of music. Which is not to say that everything that people might label as "goth" music has those specific qualities. What I will say is that "goth" music is not a genre. It's more of a vibe and covers an extremely broad range from what I would say Sin + Seraphim is to Curse Mackey, the subject of an upcoming post, which is perhaps a mix of dark wave and industrial.

So instead of genres, let's talk about characteristics of their music. Interestingly, I don't have many English speaking references for their type of music. Also, in writing this I'm noticing that a lot of the acts that I think of are no longer creating new music which is a bit sad. As strange as it may sound, my mind goes towards some specific Japanese bands and artists who were mainly active in the late 2000s up through the mid 2010s. The reason for this is because the vocalist of Sin + Seraphim has a very distinctive voice that is at times best described as operatic. She'll go from relatively low but comfortable singing to belting out lilting melodies that soar above the moody atmosphere. While the general style is different from the artists I'll list out, the vocal quality and styling is similar. In that way, she reminds me of groups and artists like Ali Project, Asriel, or Rokugen Alice (六弦アリス). I will say, that after relistening to some of their work, the vocalist for Sin + Seraphim has a significantly larger and more impressive vocal range and command over how she styles her vocal performance than the singers for those artists. Also, stylistically those artists tend to be significantly higher energy than Sin + Seraphim.

Outside of the impressive and beautifully haunting vocals are the backgrounds. Here too, there's a bit of divergence from a lot of other music. It drifts from really atmospheric stuff to stuff bordering on darkwave. Other times, it's a bit industrial but never hits super hard. Other times still, it feels very old and almost spiritual. That said, there's a remarkable amount of internal consistency to their music. While the background drifts between styles and the vocals pull up and down, it all still feels really cohesive.

As music, it feels like it skews towards a less is more mentality. This doesn't mean that there isn't complexity or depth to the music, simply that it doesn't try to flood you with sound and assault the senses in the way a lot of music tends to nowadays (and also in contrast to those examples I gave above).

With all that music talk out there, I want to talk about their performance. In the same way that their music is variable but cohesive, so is their stage performing. The core performers are the man to the left of the picture by the keyboard and laptop and the vocalist crouching. They also had two backup singers/performers, here dressed in white. While most of the performance is handled by the vocalist, the backup singers/performers bring a lot of variety and interaction.

Now finally, let's talk about this picture. Honestly I had a hard time deciding how I feel about this picture. There are some good things and there are some not so good things. It's definitely not a bad picture, but it's hard to organize my thoughts about it. Which is why this post exists.

Let's start with the exposure, focus, and light. I am pretty happy with the general exposure and focus. I'd like it to be a bit sharper where she is, but overall I'm ok with it. The reason for me wanting it to be a bit sharper is so it draws the eye better. In terms of lighting, I like the spotlight off to the right side. I think the red light cast is about the right amount of light. Overall, the exposure is the least of my worries with this picture.

So if exposure, lighting, and focus aren't significant issues, why do I feel so conflicted? Mostly it comes down to the composition. My first impressions of this picture were quite negative. Instead of talking about the resulting picture, I want to explore the image I was attempting to portray here. Interestingly, I was both trying for a similar a/b split composition and also not. When composing this picture, I remember wanting to capture her crouching and wanted to make sure that the keyboard and laptop were foregrounded and more prominent. The intention was to try and draw attention away from the foreground and more to the center via focus. Hence my wanting the focus to be a bit sharper in the middle. Ultimately, I feel like the composition in my head and in my eyes at the moment I took this picture didn't line up with my intentions.

However, I want to take a step back from what my original intentions were and reassess this picture outside of my original image concept. In doing so, I find myself more intrigued by the picture and liking it more. It still has flaws with focus and intention, but some things work out significantly better in its favor. I was definitely biased away from the picture due to my initial impressions and original concept.

To break this picture down, let's talk about the lines available to it from left to right. First is the gentleman at the keyboard and laptop. Next, is diagonal line from the keyboard stand. Between those in the gap, is one of the background performers. Furthermore, their head happens to line up with the horizontal line of the bottom of the laptop. The next vertically oriented line is the MIDI controller soundpad type thing. Enclosed between the two stands and the keyboard itself is the main singer. Off into the negative space of the frame is the diagonal spotlight and mic stand. It's interesting how many things fit pretty cleanly into the gaps of the lines available. This wasn't entirely intentional. I know I made sure to get the singer while she was crouching. I know I made sure to get the background performer. But I didn't intentionally line them up in this way.

I think that the cleanliness with which the various elements fit into these structural lines is what really keeps my interest in this picture. It's one that I relatively strongly objected to at first but have found myself enjoying and exploring more as I've looked at and interpreted it further.

A big part of my writing and doing all this for specific pictures is exploring my feelings, good or bad, to understand why I think things do or don't work. Sometimes, I realize that my intentions and my concepts may not be as good as I expect but the resulting picture can surprise me in ways I don't expect at all. This is part of why I really like to take pictures and why I really like thinking deeply about them.

A large portion of the last few years of my life has been spent reflecting and trying to expose myself to different perspectives and ideas. But it's also been trying to resolve myself and find what my values are. In many ways, my photography reflects this and is a microcosm of my own internal thoughts. Last year, I felt that for a while I was stagnant and not exploring enough. But I also saw myself wanting to solidify and construct consistent and clean narratives. Hopefully the pictures I take and put out reflect that duality. While of course I want each picture I take to tell an individual story, I also seek to create an overarching narrative to my photographical journey. One picture tells a specific story of the world, all of these pictures together tell my story.