Naomi Campbell sheds light on our life’s image

I was recently on a trip to Dublin, and while visiting the National Gallery of Ireland saw Caravaggio’s The Taking of Christ. My credentials as an artist of paint are not strong; however, I can appreciate an effective use of light direction.

My day job is in theatre. As a technician, I make sure everyone on stage is lit well and sounds as natural as possible. Just as in painting, there is an art to how you light a show. Is it day or night? Are you inside or outside? What time of year is it? Do you need to suggest foreboding or a ‘happily ever after’? And most importantly, where do we want to direct the audience’s attention?

The answer to the last question will be the main character on stage. However, anyone who has seen The Play That Goes Wrong might remember the ‘technician’ who sits in one of the seating boxes with his tech desk, cheerfully not keeping up with the cues. This performer had to be lit just as well as the stage, and at some points the audience’s attention needs to be there rather than on the stage itself.

Naomi Baldwin is a theatre technician

Photograph: Joseph Wright, The Orrery/Wikimedia Commons

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This is an extract from an article published in the June 2023 edition of Reform

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