A Morning Session (Orr's Island, Maine)

6x12 cm film

Sarah and Adele were only able to spend a morning modelling for me, and wanted to pose both as a couple, and as two distinct models. We began with the couple images, simply because it was morning, the light in their room was beautiful, and we had to start somewhere. For most of the session, the models seemed almost oblivious of me, they simply lay on the bed, cuddling and talking.

4"x5" film

Occasionally I asked them to stay still when I was about to take an image, or asked them to rearrange themselves, but for the most part, it was very quiet, with the two of them in their own world, and me hovering on the outside, looking in. There is an undeniable aspect of voyeurism to this, but no more than there is in any other photograph - it is simply more apparent because of the intimacy displayed in the images.

4"x5" film

Images of couples were the first photographs that made me think about mortality in the context of my work - photographing a couple this way freezes the relationship in time - regardless of what it turns into, the beauty of that point in time has been translated onto film, in some ways paler than the reality, and in other, larger than its origins. That moment is frozen, unchanging except for the experiential filters that each viewer brings to the images. I enjoy working with couples more than any other subject, partially because I am so very aware of the gift of freezing time. Sarah and Adele's comfort with me, and their willingness to let me into their private world is something that made these images successful, in every way as much as my photographic skills.