"When I first saw this remarkable building, I was completely struck by it. I had seen many photographs of it before but had no idea how to approach it. It seemed that the best plan for me was to find something, if I could, in the foreground, with a similar arc-like shape. It took me some time to find this row of empty chairs, and it was important that they were empty. The arms of the chairs had a fan-like shape and, to me, there was a clear relationship between these wire-mesh chairs and the opera house behind. Also, the opera house was reminiscent of things growing out of the ground, like artichokes or something similar. I believe the idea came from orange fruit segments, but, either way, it was an amazing experience for me, and I cared very much to photograph it in a way that perhaps isn’t normally seen. Each of these segments seemed to me to have faces, and hoods, which I found very appealing. I needed some animation, just to give it a little bit of life, and thankfully an individual came along in black trousers and a white shirt, and in a way he helped to hook the opera house and the seats in the foreground together. I was pleased that I pressed the shutter at exactly the moment he took the right step and that he had not gone too far, and still had his own shadow, which was important to go with other shadows."  Charlie Waite