a good mother....

a portrait of a good mother....
this image goes along with the idea that fueled a previous post about finding a little house with a broken sidewalk .... I took this photo of myself and my son last summer and it has remained by far my favorite image of myself as a mom... of course... because it lends itself to the romantic idea of nostalgic poetry of the simple pleasures of motherhood... a moment that lasted only a second.... but the memory & emotion of that second will remain until the end of time....

Another portrait I made in the doorway of a turn of the century home, the light casting shadows in this doorway was amazing. This portrait still moves me in such a way that drives my passion for creating portraits.... if for no one else..... for ME....

What's in a portrait?

Going through some of my archives this morning I ran across these portraits I made of my three boys last year. Among my favorites, they speak with nostalgic poetry, they also have a bit of uneasy silence, a hint of confrontation between the camera and the subject, although the subject becomes more of introspective communication rather than of the image of a "person" .... which is my passion in portrait making....

Focus.....

I have been, for a very long time, trying to figure out what direction I want to make my focus when it comes to photography... I've been a student if you will, trying this.... trying that.... learning, observing, making mental and actual notations on what I like what I don't.... Where I want my contribution to fit into this crazy world of photographs... film... media... I have never wanted to be too similar to another.... I wanted to find something that I would not grow bored of, as I do... too easily.... So....

I have finally identified the sorts of portraits I wish to do. The sorts of images I wish to make, which format I think would work the best for me... And I wanted to find something that I did that was not an immediate expression of who I am as a person, or my thoughts.... I've had to really pay attention to the sorts of images that draw me into them, and at what level... is my involvement with the images...

I will not show an example just yet... I am getting there... there are still some fine tuning to be done.... but soon, very soon.

Photography, through the years, has provided me with many outlets... I've gone through periods of strict workflow, strict emotional release, strict creative release, strict survival techniques, strict process only periods, among other reasons... and through all this time ... I've been learning & molding myself and my expectations of what I want out of my own photography. What is realistic, what is not, what I enjoy... what I do not...

That is all I wish to say at the moment.

... Who she wants to be?....

Following Comment by seanie blue (a profound and beautifully inspiring modern day Philosopher)

"I love the way she looks off the bridge. Traveling from point to point, over swirling, dangerous possibility, a river that can take you into an ocean, she is looking away from safety, from both her destination and her provenance, toward an ocean or a headwater, a place to be lost or found, somewhere other than where she is. I think the picture is bereft of brooding or sentiment, but loaded to the throat with curiosity. Not so much interested in who she is but in who she wants to be. This is a wonderful piece of art, Rebecca, congratulations."


Thanks, Seanie Blue
I love that you can see the poetry I express in my images and express them in words...!
Rebecca =)