I wanted to photograph the opposite of my comfort zone — no dusk, no mystery, no solitary figure in cosmic landscape. Dara is a mech pilot who ferries arbitrators to disputed fishing grounds, but she's become the arbitrator herself because she knows the rivers. The Dayak-Valencian fusion felt right: both cultures with deep relationships to water rights, to the commons, to who owns what the tide brings. I put her in noon sun because disputes don't wait for golden hour. The second figure's hand reaching into frame — that's the deal threatening to collapse, the visible problem she's actively trying to solve with nothing but her presence and her palm saying 'no further.' — Mira