Deepak Panglia on capturing FKA Twigs’ “dreamlike intimacy” on-stage

Deepak Panglia (aka Dee) originally attended this years Helsinki’s Flow Festival to shoot a different musician, before being enchanted by FKA Twig’s enthralling stage presence, and drawn into her orbit. The images from the performance look intentional and deliberate, with Twigs staring deep into the lens. Many of the shots look like Vogue covers, the black-and-white tones and dramatic lighting lending themselves to the lushness and richness of contrast favoured in high-fashion.

So how was this luxurious feel achieved? The photographer has honed his craft very specifically – Dee refers to it as “cinematic documentary”. But he also reiterates the organic and unplanned flow between his camera and Twigs. “There wasn’t a direct collaboration with her team during the show, but I felt there was a kind of unspoken connection between performer and lens,” he says. Dee’s background in digital marketing likewise played a role in his photographic education, shaping the way he thinks about visuals “not just as stand-alone images, but as stories that can travel across platforms,” Dee shares.

Each shot balances the lighting, the smoke machine and the stage’s figures: Twigs and her many dancers. And the reason it feels so deliberate, so premeditated, is all in the storytelling. Each element of Twigs’ live performance are treated as characters within their own right. In one image, the lighting obscures the performers facial features, leaving them swimming into silhouette. Dee describes the impact of the absence of colour: “In monochrome, the focus shifts to her presence, her expression, the contrasts of shadow and movement. It amplifies the timeless quality of the performance.” In another, her dress is the subject, it’s drapes and edges highlighted by the light that shines behind.

In terms of inspiration, Dee is drawn to the films of Wong Kar Wai for their vibrance, director Andrei Tarkovsky for the poetry of his films and the photographer Peter Lindbergh for his observational quality. Sonically speaking, Dee shares, “I’m inspired by the same artists I often shoot: FKA Twigs, James Blake, and Björk. Musicians whose work blend intimacy with experimentation.” Perhaps this level of off-the-cuff depth found in Dee’s photography is a testament to his grasp of how to conjure chemistry between photographer and sitter. Without Dee’s observation and fluidity, and without FKA Twigs’ stage presence, attention, this symbiosis would not have occurred. Dee ends: “I aimed to capture not just what it looked like, but what it felt like in that moment, the atmosphere, the intimacy, the power.”