"Pneuma" Self Portrait Photograph By PhenomenaLewis (Lewis Derogene) made in 2020
Inner Dialogue series
16.55in x 11.3in
Limited Edition of 5
When I photographed Pneuma I didn't have any preliminary sketch or thought, I just went right in with the photographs. I pinned one of my bedsheets to my ceiling facing the windows and just sat on my bed, grabbed my pillows and posed. I was wearing the same clothes that I go to sleep in. That's how much of an unplanned and un-thought-out photograph this was.
When I started to edit this, I thought it would be another addition to my unpublished archive of photographs until I felt the art speak back to me. It's like the photograph was alive and it was talking to me, directing me in post-production on how it should be, on how it should look like.
That's why I titled it Pneuma, because it carries part of my soul, and I became alive in another dimension.
One of the limited-edition prints is part of Arthur Lewis and Hau Nguyen art collection.