Wideangle environmental portraits can be highly effective if you move in on your subject and wrap critical context for meaning around it. I was shooting very close to the young woman, the subject of my photograph. I placed her head near the top of my frame and her feet near the bottom, yet I was still able to embrace much of the bed upon which she sits, and upon which her mother rests. The young woman is my foreground layer, the bed and mother the middle ground layer, and the neighboring yards and houses the background layer. This layering stacks the picture in substance – the subject herself is a study in relaxation, confidence, and Laotian costume. She contrasts both in size and attitude to her mother. She is upright, her mother is not. She is much larger, implying her primacy as a caregiver. She is relaxed and confident, while her mother seems frail and quite vulnerable. The background gives us the atmosphere of a Laotian house – the lower flow is open on all four sides and the earth floor stretching back into the picture tells us even more about the nature of this dwelling. All of this is made possible by two things: my choice of vantage point, and the 24mm wideangle lens.