I’m not a fan of yesterday’s holiday. Now and then I have gone ahead and done something for it, but generally only because I’ll take any excuse to cook, and for nice people I care about who feel lonely without a Thanksfornothing gathering, and don’t have one on a given year, there’s no good reason not to spend time with them and eat well. Even if they turn up their noses as Tofurkey.

But when that’s not the case, and I can just have a day to myself without celebrating pillage, rape, germ warfare and genocide with the slaughter of yet another species (yeah, I’m a big party pooper, I know), I grab that opportunity. Which is what I did yesterday, especially since I landed a fever/virus-thing earlier this week post-deadline madness. In fact, I’m only blogging in this way right now because I know that those of you who do enjoy this holiday, including my sweetheart, who was off doing the feasting-thing, are now finished, so I won’t ruin your good time at this point.

…which I recognize is not without its good stuff. Never going to say that people taking a day to be thankful for the nice stuff in their lives and worlds is a bad thing: just more of the mind that doing it that mindfully every single day is important, and would encourage exactly that.

I did make Mr. Price some beautiful mushroom-white miso gravy to take with him, so don’t let it be said I can’t put my own issues aside sometimes and still make a positive contribution.

But thank jeebus for a whole day and night without anything required of me.

I finally got some time to empty my camera, including some drop-dead gorgeous shots I got to take of a subject in Minneapolis during my last brief visit. Post-move, I’d had a bunch of Minnesotans still emailing asking about portrait sessions, so I just tossed an email out to all of them saying that I had time for ONE, very brief photo session, and it was first-come first-serve: whoever emialed me back first, who could manage that very specific time slot, had a location, could transport me there and back, and who was comfortable having a session without the usual advance consultation session I did could have it.

knowing
Originally uploaded by Heather Corinna.

As I’ve talked about before, I really don’t like the dynamics of arranging portrait sessions sometimes, in that my sense is — due to the world we live in — that women feel like they have to show me pictures or somehow earn my time or favor, usually based on what they look like. To date, I can’t think of a single photo subject I have had who I did not find interesting, who I could not take compelling photos of pretty easily. I love people, and more to the point, I love women: there’s always something compelling and interesting going on for me to work with.

So, this sort of random lottery approach, with no idea of who my subject would be, appealed to me. And as it turned out, I lucked out. I got an awesome, sensitive subject (and one who didn’t think I was a giant dope for shouting out upon seeing her, “Oh ROCK! You’re of size!” because it’s just that exciting to me to get subjects who keep things as diverse as they truly are), and some really stunning shots.

I’m not a photographer for whom processing or product is the best part in terms of what I enjoy. My favorite part is always doing the work, taking the photos, and engaging in the sort of unique intimacy that always happens when I’m doing one-on-one work. I wonder sometimes if it’s the art that I really love, or what happens interpersonally between myself and a subject…which is, of course, a circular matter, since that’s part of what shows itself in the art. Equally, I wonder if that also isn’t some of why working with the nude and the sensual isn’t still such a draw: there’s simply a different sort of connection (and more so between women in my experience: more times than not, if we’re sitting as subject for most men, we stay on our guard, for obvious reasons) that happens when a subject is allowing you that much trust, when you inevitably talk sexual history, relationships, and among women — especially when they know or read that you’re a survivor — about our collective wounds. This is clearly also why portraiture is my big, big love in terms of subject matter: I am documenting not just the subject, but the dynamics of an unseen and somewhat mysterious interpersonal connection, usually, when I have my druthers, between women.

So, more times than not, I think my enjoyment in finishing the work, looking at the photos after-the-fact is not just a matter of having done good work. Putting my critical artist-eyeballs aside, I look at them the way that someone looks at photos of a relationship they have or once had, of family gatherings: as remembrance of these incredible, random and intimate connections I’m gifted with during the work itself.

(And yes: this means that a new set will — finally — go up in the next day or so. So sorry for the wait!)

filed under Heather Corinna | photography & art | women
posted on Friday, November 24th, 2006 at 10:21 am

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