This project has been an ongoing series in my work for awhile now. It has been part of my life work before I even knew it. When I started doing this as a young, naive, adult woman…long before any client knew who I was….back when I asked the busboy at the restaurant I bartended at for his girlfriend’s number to ask her to model for me for my first photo session….not even sure why I was shooting what I was ….I didn’t know what I wanted…I just kept looking for that thing that made me feel inspired when I shot it. Over time, seeing the pattern in my choices and subjects, the patterns in their movement, and locations I picked, I realized I had been creating this documentation of the stages of becoming a woman. The common denominator was to show their strength and beauty from whatever stage of life they were standing in. It was formalized into a gallery show over the last year for the invitational group photography exhibit at the Cannon Beach Arts Association, and then most recently submitted into the LensCulture Exposure competition. Although in those instances, there was a limit to the number of pieces in a series that could be selected, there are in fact many more pieces to this project. I will try to keep showing them from time to time here.
These images focus on the powerful and mysterious journey from girl-hood all the way to wise old woman. The rites of passage as we move from a tiny beautiful child through the confusing changes of our adolescence, the vulnerable twists and turns of owning our sexuality, our role in relationships, the challenges and strength found in adulthood, and the arrival of wisdom in our later years. Different cultures, different backgrounds, but we all share a common understanding of moving through these phases of our lives. I feel there are defining identities that emerge to shape our feminine journey, and we move in and out of them as gracefully and confidently as we know how.
Featured in this show are Spanish, American, Italian, African, Native American, Portuguese, and Greek girls and women. They are different, and they are the same. All are beautifully fully present in their journey of becoming a woman.
I’ve been making photographs for awhile now, travelling to different areas of the world, finding inspirations. In the beginning of my photography journey, I started in black and white film, falling in love with the work of my heros in photography; Henri-Cartier- Bresson, Walker Evans, Richard Avedon, Mary Ellen Mark, Bruce Weber, Herb Ritts, Peter Lindbergh, Helmut Newton to name a few. No matter what part of the world I go, it seems there is a thread of amazing soulful humanity in the people I have met and photographed, from all walks of life. Pin itPin itPin itPin itPin itPin itPin itPin itPin itPin itPin it