…where we have put our labor. – Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Adoration.
I sent this to Celeste (the mom pictured) and she wrote back the most beautiful description of why she loved this photo… I agreed with all of them. She mentions contrast, colors and all those photographic elements that one could say. But she also mentioned the precise reason I love it… it is that grip… those indents in Celeste’s arm that really show the connection here. It’s need. It’s adoration.
I went out, far out into the country to Tamara’s house to shoot her, her husband and their two boys. It was a pretty afternoon and I thought it was just going to be just like any other shoot day. But then we sat down after, after her strong persuasion, to eat dinner that she had made for her and I as they boys had already eaten.
Tamara is this sweet little southern number, perfect body, quiet personality, warm soul. She comes across as a young woman with the perfect life. A husband that is great and adores her, two energetic yet perfectly well behaved and polite boys that she stays at home with and a beautiful home. She never seems frazzled or stressed (though with two young boys I sweat because of stress just thinking of it) or down. I spent a year standing next to her and enjoyed getting to know so much about her… she always greeted me with a smile and hug no matter what the circumstance. Though she doesn’t know it, her confidence in and love of my work pushed me through some hard critical photog days. These things are great, but it was at that dinner that I understood her affect on me.
We sat over a meal of slowly cooked pot roast (at the time I didn’t eat meat, so I picked at some vegetables and listened to her talk). After I had pried, she starting talking about how her family became a family… it wasn’t ‘we met, we fell in love and here we are.’ She was, to put it nicely, not treated well in a previous situation. And to put it simply, in my eyes, she should have quit at life, quit thinking it was going to get better, quit believing that something was going to change. She sat there and spoke with a smile on her face, watching her boys out the window build a bonfire, of a life one should never have to live, that she very well did. She fought hard for herself and for the things she loved most. She fought hard for things so many of us take for granted. You would NEVER know this and even as she shared she had this glow about her as though she understood it and was at peace with the things that happened… her smile only faded in order to chew, not because of the subject matter.
We all have our own personal tragedies some serious, some far too small to even put focus on but we do… I am so guilty of this. She, her personality and her smile inspire me to remember that the fight is worth it… the fight of life, the fight of business, the fight for our children, the fight for ourselves… because the things we love are the things we labor for. She is proof that there is, and should be, a smile at the end of it… and maybe a little pot roast, if you’re lucky!
Thanks to my 47 entries in yesterday’s contest… I’ll announce the winner tomorrow! My apologies for the delay, I’m in lovely little Iowa… and while we DO actually have running water and electricity… my travels, by air and car, have made the Internet a little less constant! YAY… tomorrow is FRIDAYYYYYYYY.
I heart you all… erika@erikaleighphotography.com!
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