This is Jen. She was my roommate in college. She also got married IN college (yes she was crazy, but to be fair, Adam is cool and they are happily married to this day... 13 YEARS later).She also happens to have a closet talent as a model as we accidentally discovered documenting her perfect hair before cancer robbed her of it.
See, my biggest stumbling block with my photography is my own self-consciousness. And, that is often the biggest stumbling block for my subjects as well. Well, cancer was bigger than that. If I had inhibitions ordering her around, getting her to keep craning her neck until the light was right, I had to get over it. This was no time to be timid and get timid shots.
And as a result it's the photography I am most proud of - both professionally and personally because she has a legacy now of that horrible time (that yes, does go on from time to time) that is actually quite beautiful, as is, I might add, the strength and honesty she showed while going through it.
Anyway, now it seems I see her as a friend first (of course) and someone to document second. (Dangit, Jen, we forgot your scar again).
SO, because I have a hard time scheduling just plain old good friend time, I usually use the need for a photoshoot as a cover and we're off and running.
And, despite the fact that my ideas aren't quite as meaningful as they once were at inception - we usually find out we were much cooler and deeper than we thought we were. Like the petticoat shoot that Steve so poignantly pointed out was a harsh juxtaposition of Cancer-bald with little girl's innocent petticoat.
And this one? New life maybe? A bride to the next phase? Committing again to keep going, keep fighting, keep laughing, keep sharing, keep dancing? Yeah, maybe that too.
1 comment:
Yes, that's precisely it. There's a special alchemy that has occurred in our times together as photographer and subject: a lessoning of the normal inhibitions, an urgency to document the here and now, a yearning to capture something special and unique and wonderful, even when things were really bad. And thanks to the relationship that we already had, there was already a willingness on both of our parts to be more vulnerable and open--to risk and to experiment and to laugh and to try and to learn.
Thank you, again. What a gift.
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