Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.
-- Dorothea Lang
I truly believe that portraits are priceless. I cannot bare the thought of all our images living in a folder, on a flash drive or hard drive. Never to be held or admired by future generations and only looking as good as whatever screen they may occasionally be viewed on.
Some time after my father passed away, my sisters and I cleaned out his house to get it ready to sell. While it was truly one of the hardest things I've done, it also was a treasure hunt of sorts. Stumbling on those interesting finds that probably were just ordinary things to my father, but were so new to us. One cute thing we discovered was that he filed old photos of each of us, not in a shoe box like most, but in a file cabinet under our names... mine were under T for Tracy (the youngest), L had two files, one for Lisa (oldest sister) and one for Lynn (in the middle).
Something that instantly went into my take-home box was this portrait of my grandmother. A treasure for sure.
And then there are the candids of her and her friends at the lake, with my grandfather, us visiting when we were really young. I particularly loved this one of her with, I'm assuming, my mother. I assume it's my mother because this is my mother's signature pose. How many photos do we have with my mother hiding her face?? Don't you love my grandmother's body language?! I can just hear her saying "Carol, quit being so ridiculous." While imagining what grandma was saying to my mother is amusing, the truth is I don't have a single portrait of her. I have so many photos of her hiding her face behind, but how I would love a beautiful portrait showing the face I loved.
When I'm going through the images after a photo session, I have the hardest time culling down which images to keep and which ones to toss. I see the subtle differences from one image to the next and wonder which will touch the heart of the person in the photo, but also those who will see that image in the future. What a great honor to have that connection with a person and their family when they trust in me to capture moments in time...
A young couple starting their life together. A woman celebrating her femininity, just for her. Celebrating who you've become. A teen looking forward to college. A dancer dancing. The beauty of an expecting mother. A special moment between mother and child. Just to be a model for a day.
You deserve to exist in photographs. For whatever the reason.