My daughters’ threw a party at our house back in 2002 on the last day of school. One
of their friends had her whole arm tattooed. I saw her sitting in this chair and next
to her I could see the same colors from her tattoo reflected subtlely in the wall
beside her.
I saw her every day and what stood out about her was her hair. She pulled it back
tight against her head into a bun. I didn’t know what her hair was like actually,
beyond that it was brown. Because her hair was somewhat out of the picture I was
able to see her bone structure very well. She had a great neck and skull, elegant
and regal.
When I asked her if I could take some photos of her I explained those things to her.
She was surprised since she said she only put her hair up out of convenience and
didn’t really think it made her look all that great.
When the next school year came around after a summer off (she was a student) I
noticed for the first time she was wearing her hair down quite often. It was very
long and curly/wavy, almost half way down her back. I asked her why she had decided
to wear it down more and she said she had been getting bad headaches. She went to
the doctor for them and found out it was likely from pulling her hair too tight into
the bun every day!
She was waiting for her man, a traveling sportsman, the longest they had been apart,
she had a new car, was hoping he would like it, he was tall, buy maybe not tall enough,
she goes to school full time and works full time, it’s been hard but she is excited to
see him, she was hoping she was in the right place.
Tulsa International Airport, Oklahoma
7/29/06
She wasn’t sure what the photos were going to turn out like, and either was I. I
loved the light in the lobby where I worked and this student happened by one morning
as the sun reflected off the granite floor.
I liked her red complexion but when I worked half the collage up in black and white
and took out 2 of the 3 channels I also loved the porcelain look of her skin. This
got me thinking about how others might perceive her in different ways; red, white,
porcelain, ruddy, however, her perception of her self, her truth is the same no
matter who she is in front of. That is how I came upon the title for this piece.
It is in the ‘Truths and Things I Made Up About This Woman’ series, even with the
variant title.
I went into a jewelry store in Tulsa looking for something specific for my wife. I didn’t find it but had a great salesperson help me. She was informative and thoughtful. The whole front of the store was facing south with big windows and it was winter time so the sun was streaming in. It bounced off the floor and glass cases and landed on her in a wonderful way. I asked her if I could take some photos of her and she obliged me.
I did a collage and showed it to her a few days later. She was upset about how it looked, thinking I had made her look rather ugly. I didn’t think it did, but I didn’t post it out of respect for her discomfort. I did this one later, working with less manipulation and distortion and I think she was happier with it.
I love this piece because of how I got the hair and the line of her face to match up. She is the same top to bottom but then a second look obviously shows something isn’t as it should be. Just a bit of a skewed perspective on the portrait.
My wife and I chaperoned about 40 teenagers to Disney World in 2007. We went for a ‘Singabration’ (I started calling the participants ‘singabrats’ haha). The week was filled with images and memories and stimulation. Watching the kids sleeping on the bus on the way home from Disney World, I imagined what all the kids were dreaming of, what little flotsam and jetsam of memories were being glued together in their brains.
I saw her across the large field as I left work. she was a tiny dot of fun in a field of darkening ice at dusk. I walked across the field with my camera and cleats and told her it would be a shame to witness someone having that much fun and not get a record of it. She was happy and polite and filled with joy. It was in her head, as it can be with any of us. She made me smile.