I noticed that we had reached that time of night where the apartments we were walking past were lit up like living lightboxes. It was just at that moment before the people inside had realized that the lack of light outside had made it possible to see in past the glass of their balcony doors, past the glazing of their energy efficient windows, straight into their homes. It was almost as if every apartment building was a lifesize dollhouse, the kind where you could reach out and open the front panel, exposing all the rooms hidden behind. Sometimes life is like that, it takes on a cinematic quality, your eyes replace the camera and as you pan across the scene, the movie moves with you. But moments like that are fleeting, before you can fully appreciate it you are moving steadfastly towards your destination and you leave that frame behind you.

© Raffaella Loro, 2009. All rights reserved

Shopping malls can be suffocating places, full of overwhelmed and frenzied people, frustrated with the long lineups, disappointed with the lack of sizes, irritated by the ill-fit of a garment that looked fantastic on the headless mannequin in the front display. Malls are a confusing spectacle, designed to disorient and keep us wandering directionless like a rats in a maze.