Silhouettes.

Lately, silhouettes have become a recurring theme in my photography, especially since discovering the work of Ovidiu Selaru. His approach to light—how he chases it, waits for it, and patiently crafts each frame—deeply influenced the way I now see and shoot.

Silhouette photography resonates on both a visual and emotional level. The stark contrast between a darkened subject and a bright background grabs attention instantly—our eyes are naturally drawn to this kind of visual tension.

By stripping away internal details and reducing a subject to its outer form, silhouettes transform the figure into something iconic, universal, instantly recognisable, and strangely relatable. The subject becomes anyone, or everyone. That sense of anonymity gives the image symbolic weight; viewers are invited to project their own emotions or stories onto it.

Silhouettes also rely heavily on the creative use of negative space. The outline itself becomes part of the narrative. Without faces or expressions, the mood is conveyed through shape, posture, and light alone. That emotional ambiguity is what I love most about silhouettes.

There’s also a timeless, poetic quality to them. Looking at the works of photographers I admire—Ovidiu Selaru, Phil Penman, Mark Fernley, Ando Fuchs—I see how they use silhouettes to evoke nostalgia, romance, and quiet drama. That balance, that subtle emotional pull, is what makes silhouettes so powerful—and why they’ve become such an essential part of my visual language.