Lady in red  

Chris De Burgh

 I’ve never seen you looking so lovely as you did tonight

I’ve never seen you shine so bright

I’ve never seen so many men ask you if you wanted to dance

They’re looking for a little romance, given half a chance

And I have never seen that dress you’re wearing

Or the highlights in your hair that catch your eyes

I have been blind

The lady in red is dancing with me, cheek to cheek

There’s nobody here, it’s just you and me

It’s where I want to be

But I hardly know this beauty by my side

I’ll never forget the way you look tonight

I’ve never seen you looking so gorgeous as you did tonight

I’ve never seen you shine so bright, you were amazing

I’ve never seen so many people want to be there by your side

And when you turned to me and smiled, it took my breath away

And I have never had such a feeling

Such a feeling of complete and utter love, as I do tonight

The lady in red is dancing with me….

1. The tone of this ‘poem’ is sensuous, romantic. A man sees a beautiful woman at a party wearing a red dress, and he is captivated by her. Others try to get a dance with her and finally she turns to him and wants to dance with him, which takes his breath away.
2. The audience of both approaches are couples, lovers and anyone stung by love.
3. Both designs are literal, showing images of red and roses, both of which signify love and desire.
4. Because love of this kind is aimed at couples, people, I chose to have a model for one of the images. Two similar pictures with the same model may be redundant so I choose a still life for the second picture, focusing on the subtle contours of a rose.
5. I used my sister as the model.
6. The second photo, I used a rose as the subject. This is the same rose that the model is holding in the first photo to give some continuity to both photos.
7. I used a strobe light to enhance the contrast of the image, on top of regular 75W white house lighting.
8. I used a lot of contrast, light and dark, because love is mysterious and sensual. The photo of the rose only needs to focus on the contours of the rose, so I used a shallow depth of field. I also placed the rose atop a mirror to give some duality to the image in its reflection. This is similar to how love requires a duality of two lovers.