ABSTRACT
Perspective compression and expansion can visualize the emotional subjectivity of a character’s connection to their environment, revealing how the spaces they inhabit make them feel. This spatial manipulation can be overt, by using extreme focal lengths at either end of the spectrum, or subtle, by only slightly deviating from normal lenses so that the effect is more felt than noticed. A particularly effective application of this principle is used by director Mark Romanek in One Hour Photo, the story of a lonely middle aged photo lab technician, Sy Parrish, who becomes pathologically obsessed with the Yorkins, a family whose pictures he develops at a supermarket. The supermarket was shot mainly with wide-angle lenses that expanded perspective and created a distorted sense of depth, suggesting a spacious, unrestricted environment that is in stark contrast with his apartment, shot with mostly telephoto lenses that flattened the depth of the frame, making it feel restrictive and oppressive.
