siblings

 
It was a pleasure to photograph this brother and sister recently. They were especially kind and considerate towards one another, unusually so really, and photographing them brought back memories of my brother and I at their age. Perhaps more than any other shoot I’ve done before, I imagined how it might have been to photograph myself and my little brother at eleven and nine, just as these two children are now.

We were professionally photographed as children only once, and it was obvious from viewing the resulting portrait that both my brother and I were extremely nervous and uncertain in front of the studio photographer. It’s interesting that the black and white portrait my grandmother purchased as a 20×24 that hung in her home for years would never have even made the proof selection for one of my clients. I looked so frightened!

Sometimes I have a hard time giving myself credit for being a decent photographer. I feel that I’m still continually learning, and am always more acutely aware of what I’ve done wrong than what has been successful. But I truly wish that I could have photographed a young me, for I would made certain that she wasn’t afraid before I even considered making that first image. I could have shown her a photographic version of herself as being so strong and worthy and beautiful that maybe, just for a moment, she might have believed it to be true.

~Cynthia