For my photo adaptation, I chose to adapt The Phantom of the Opera (Julian, 1925). The scene that drew me in was when the Phantom takes the opera singer to his lair, and she removes his mask, revealing his face. This moment is both intense and eerie—her reaction to his unmasking and his shift in energy to something grotesque and aggressive create a dramatic scene worthy of adaptation. His possessiveness, combined with her terror, made me want to recreate this moment as a collage that captures the intense emotions between both characters and the black-and-white aesthetic of the film.

To represent the Phantom’s controlling and dark nature, I photographed my arm reaching out and distorted it in Procreate to reflect his desperation and overwhelming emotions. To capture the opera singer’s beauty, I photographed floral fabric and alternated between colour and black-and-white versions to symbolize the Phantom’s perception of her as both vibrant and objectified. Meanwhile, I edited a dark stairway in Lightroom to heighten the intensity of the scene, reinforcing the Phantom’s lair as an isolated and mysterious space.

Considering media adaptations, I reflected on the Crawford Productions, which transitioned from radio to television (Helen Tully, National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, n.d.). This shift made me think about how different mediums offer unique affordances for adaptation and how artists use them to reimagine stories in distinct ways. As Hutcheon argues, adaptation isn’t simply about changing media but engaging with a story in new ways—through telling, showing, and interacting (Hutcheon, 2012, pp. 26–27). My adaptation uses the visual mode to reinterpret The Phantom of the Opera, transforming a cinematic moment into a photographic collage that captures its eerie, dramatic essence while reflecting my artistic vision.

 

References

Hutcheon, L. (2013). Beginning to Theorize Adaptation: What? Who? Why? How? When? In S. O’Flynn (Ed.), A theory of adaptation (2nd ed., pp. 1–32). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203095010

Julian, R. (Director). (1925). The Phantom of the Opera [Film]. Universal Pictures.

Tully, H. .(n.d.). The legacy of Hector Crawford. National Film and Sound Archive of Australia https://www.nfsa.gov.au/latest/legacy-hector-crawford