It was a cold windy night we were done with dinner and drinks and chatting by a street lamp, she lit up a cigarette and broke the silence of the night. Almost instinctive, I picked my M5 up, never mind the dim meter, I just know the aperture and film speed, I turned to 1/8 of a second and took this shot. All that happened in a split of a second. I had to develop it myself as I had under-exposured slightly and would like to bring up the grains. Afterall, I prefer grainy and harsh finish to almost all my black and white night shots, it brings me beyond a picture. A more vulgar representation. Who is she? What does she do? What did she pose for this? I like it so much, it was the only 35mm format in my Beautiful Strange exhibition in 2009 – Francis Tan
Gear: Leica M5 + Summilux 50mm f1.4 Type 3 + Trix 400 (pushed 1 stop, self-developed)
Flickr