family

my family - 2014

in

Cherish your human connections: your relationships with friends and family.
Joseph Brodsky

What to say about this year with the girls who are now older girls ... I cherished my human connectin so much that this year was more about the being there with them than the need/pull to document them with pictures. To be perfectly candid, I wasn't all that into it and neither were they. What's worked in the past doesn't fit any longer and so we will find a new way to explore and expand in the year ahead in a way that is a little more interactive and collaborative. This photograph conveys my sentiments - a passage through to the other side.

And yet there were these beauties which express all i could say and more about who these two are right now.

And here is the larger story - all the pages laid out in a way that tells their story this year.

at the seashore

in

how is it that three months can pass in what feels like one breath....i always shake my head and sigh at this time of year. realizing how easily i shrug off each day early on in june and into the high season of july - days that seem to linger on into the next that forge an attitude of "i'll get to the beach next week" until mid-august arrives and i find myself in a near panic of holy shit - it's almost over. maybe this is the year i'll finally awaken to the wisdom of taking in each day. and maybe next year i'll be a bit more assertive in marketing the love i have for beach documentary portraits.

quinn | august, 2013

quinn | august, 2013

faceless

in

And then there comes a time when some girls at around age 10 see themselves in comparison to others. As I was one of those girls who despised what I saw in the mirror, it's a hard photograph to take....knowing I've caught a moment in ways of self rejection. Here, this one didn't want her photograph taken at all and with a heavy heart, I did anyway - because for me, it told the story of that summer.

AMW | 2011

AMW | 2011

Why this works? Though it's taken fairly close in the camera frame, her position is an arc, a half circle - the remainder filled in by the position of the chairs in the background. I see soft figures in the background and know this is some kind of street event. i see her fingers pressed heavily onto her face, the bits of nail polish that remain on her fingers and the conviction of hiding.

summer vacation

in

at ten years of age, there is nothing sweeter or freer than the beginning of summer with what feels like many days ahead to fill with swimming and snacks and sleepovers and playing outside with what feels like forever friends.

three years ago watching my nieces in the pool playing a synchronized jumping in together with a friend, i remembered all those feelings i had at their age and wanted to pay homage to that. this photograph is the result.

as for the image, i liked how the girls stood out against the woods -  framed by tall trees and wild growth. i have clear sense of the season and with the light shimmering on the pool, i know it's later in the day (it was actually after 4pm). but it was their individual pose - the different jumps - that made this particular image work: the two on the ends reach towards left and right and frame the one in the center who's stretches upwards.

a&k @11 & 12 | july, 2011

still from a wedding

in

i like pictures that make you stop and wonder what's going on outside of the frame which is exactly the theme of this photograph. i liked the two groups ranging from toddler to grandparent broken into a group of three and four. i waited for the littlest one to turn the way she did, mirroring her mama's stance. and in looking at all three little girls, i was particularly taken with their hands and their pose. while there's activity going on behind them, their presence is strong enough to hold my attention.

wedding at wolfe's neck farm | freeport maine, 2013