Portraits

During the fall of 2006, I started thinking about Christmas presents for family, as well as about wanting a picture for myself of my rapidly growing daughter, so I decided to see about getting a portrait of Emmeline taken.

I had a friend at work who was dating a photographer, so she put me in touch with him.  She told me that he had lost his studio and all of his prior work in Katrina (his studio was in Lakeview, so everything was gone), but that he was an amazing photographer.

I called him and we set up a time for him to take the portraits at a spot where he was using loaned space. He warned me that the building didn't have electricity yet, so we set up the appointment for early morning, when the natural light coming in through the floor to ceiling windows was at its best. He asked me to bring a blanket to drape on the floor, as the building had industrial carpeting.

I brought the blanket, he brought a backdrop. And it was the best damn pictures I've ever seen.

And it still amazes me that a year after Katrina, I went to a building with no electricity for a portrait session--and that seemed perfectly normal at the time.