The thinkers at shark&minnow were inspired by ‘Alina’— a collection of portraits that captures the resulting facial expressions of twelve women while listening to the same piece of music, ‘Für Alina.’ The work is created by Bettina von Zwehl, a German photographer who lives and works in London.
Driven by von Zwehl’s interest in psychologists’ research surrounding the ways people’s emotions are influenced while listening to music, each woman — dressed in identical white vests — listened to the same piece of music, while seated in a dark room. von Zwehl captured their images sporadically during the second half of the song, using flash photography so the background appeared white. The results were absolutely stunning and pure as the sitters’ images were captured unexpectedly, displaying an increased vulnerability and uninhibited emotional response.
