My girl Olivia is all wrapped up in photography. I don't know why this surprises me given how we are the only two women of the house...I guess she would, at the very least be intrigued by my work...beats football. She loves the darkroom. She patiently waits for the image to come up in the tray and on cue gently moves it through the chemistry.
The camera is in love with her. She knows it and requires no direction from me whenever I am shooting her. She and I could be in one helluva mean cat fight in the 10 minutes prior to me pressing the shutter, but the second I look through the viewfinder...the girl transforms herself.
So last Sunday morning, I had been up a couple of hours with an image rolling around in my head, hoping that she would wake up before it got too sunny. I had this scraggly sunflower in a small pot that I had bought from the farmer's market the day before...specifically with a photograph in mind. I knew I would talk myself out of taking the shot or kill the sunflower before I got around to it and so I just had to DO IT. At 7:30 I went in where she was curled up in a ball like a warm kitten, sound asleep sucking her thumb. I rubbed her back, whispered her name a couple of times and asked if she could hear me. She barely nodded her head. I said, "Sister, I have this really good idea for a picture but I need you for it and we would need to go now. What do you think?" She doesn't make a sound, rolls out of bed, steps into the skirt and blouse I'm holding and gets in the car. She hardly even opens her eyes. I was amazed. It started raining almost as soon as we got there but I shot a few frames, told her how awesome she was for being so willing and spent the rest of our drive home trying to explain the definition of a Muse.
A few weeks ago, my image won Best In Show at the local ArtsCenter. Olivia was especially proud because it was a photograph of her. It is dear to me, not only because she is in it but it was the first frame of the first roll I shot after returning from Santa Fe nearly a year ago. Its called "Sacred". She asked me what Sacred meant and why I had chosen that word as the title. Then, get a load of this...she says, "You know what I like about that picture mom? I like how the trees cross each other at the top, and how I am right under them, and how 'just right' the light is around me". SHE'S EIGHT. And she was describing, quite accurately what makes this image work...the lines, the light, and oh my god...this child.
she's right ... the light is 'just right' ... thanks for sharing that :)
Posted by: kasandra | June 05, 2009 at 04:18 PM