Often before I begin a portrait session, I go deep, deep into my heart. Into a place of quiet awareness and mindfulness.
It is a meditation that calms me and concentrates my mind so that I am ready to connect to the present moments of the experience(s) I am about to have.
You may have seen my most recent post on Facebook, 3 images from a portrait session unlike any other that I have ever been commissioned to do.
A dear friend, a month out from chemo and a few days into what will be many weeks of radiation, asked me to capture her in her time of transitioning and beginning to heal.
When she first asked me to do this for her, with no hesitation in my breath, I immediately said YES! I told her that I would be honored to make her portrait during this time. To be asked to do this, and to be invited into her private meditation of farewell to cancer, left me without words and abundantly full of gratitude and tenderness.
She is living in the present moment(s) of her human experience with such fierce grace and strength.
This woman, with the heart of a lion and a calm and concentrated mind, is one of the most powerful and extraordinary women I have ever had the opportunity to photograph.
Gratitude & Love.
Erin