brother on the way

 

I always enjoy photographing for this family because of their extraordinary playfulness, laid back attitude, and desire for more natural and candid portraits. Even when things don’t go as planned, their willingness to just roll with it and try something else opens the door to the sort of portraits I love the most: the inadvertent pockets of time that feel as if they would have happened on their own even if I hadn’t shown up with camera.

It isn’t always easy to achieve a genuine level of intimacy in client portraits. There is a lot working against this happening; including the natural urges of the ego, time constraints, and the fact that a stranger or near stranger (me) arrives and expects everyone to act as if nothing is out of the ordinary. But this is part of the challenge of this work that drives me and that I truly love……..the desire to seek out intimacy in a context where it typically wouldn’t be discovered by an “outsider”. When I’m able to reach this place it changes how I feel about people, every single time. It is like falling in love. I feel less separate and disconnected, and more hopeful.

It is the primary reason why I am a photographer.

 
~Cynthia