A Light in the Dark
By Michele Piazza
19 May 2008
How it starts is like this: My camera's hot shoe is busted. Don't ask what happened, all I know is I pull it out of the bag to find the metal there crushed. And I'm already late. Over the camera's built-in pop-up crap-flash, I tape the scrap of an old light filter and hope for the best. See also: a miracle.
This is the Hollywood Cemetery. It's L.A.'s annual Dia De Los Muertos celebration and, all night long, my make-shift filter keeps coming un-stuck. I'm swept up in the crowds, a parade that follows me everywhere, and each shot that I take there's the half-light of a filter that keeps falling from grace. So I hold it on with one hand, trigger the shot with the other, try to remember that life is about the moment and this is a celebration of life. Enjoy it.
And, while I wouldn't call these shots the best of my career, they are, perhaps, the most true to the moment. For that, they are some of my favorites.
