Prom Couple

I was on a magazine assignment when I made this photograph of young friends at a prom in North Carolina. For the technically curious, this was actually a grab shot on the dance floor. It was quite dark in the ballroom, and I realized that the only way to photograph was to pre-focus at a certain distance, set my flash, and then shoot blind. Camera and flash set, I headed out onto the dance floor.  The timelessness of this unguarded moment couldn’t have been accomplished any other way. A sweet detail I didn’t notice until I was working with the image extensively while printing it for the first time is that she’s wearing his tie.

In the Cassilhaus Collection
Chapel Hill, North Carolina