unadorned

 

Of the thousands of images I’ve created for clients over the years the ones I remember most fall into one of two categories: Those that I’ve personally loved that the client has also loved, and those I’ve loved that the client has openly disliked. The experience of the first is exhilarating and makes my day, while unfortunately the sharp sting of the latter persists much longer.

I’m fine when a client expresses a preference of one image over another for whatever reason, even if I don’t agree. But when it happens that they point out a particular favorite of mine and comment on how much they don’t like it…..it can get to me. I’d like to say this is because I work very hard to please each client and their satisfaction is most important to me (and this is absolutely true), but the underlying reason is much less noble. The images I’ve made that I’m most intensely drawn to are inevitably those in which I’ve allowed the greatest amount of my real self to be included within. Hard to describe really, but I recognize it immediately when viewing the resulting photograph. Usually the image feels a bit raw, sometimes slightly abstract, and is typically unadorned. I may have taken a chance in some way, either being bold, defiant, or extraordinarily fragile. But I’m plainly there, and so when I hear the words, “I really don’t like this one”, it feels personal.

Is there room in the area of one’s life defined as “work” to be so vulnerable? Most of the time I think not. But since I can’t seem to work any other way, I guess the trick is to care less what others think about each and every image, and trust more that there are those who value the unadorned and will ultimately seek me out to photograph their children.

~Cynthia