these images are the most true thing i've shot in a long time.

and i can't take the credit.

it was this mama's deep desire to live honestly that let me, no, that encouraged me to create them. i don't think i would have had the guts to step outside my comfort zone of constantly posing and directing (yes, i am pained to confess to how much i pose) if she hadn't made clear to me that what she wanted was something real.

not the real that we say and pretend to mean, but then

wear the cloths we bought especially for the shoot a week ago,

clean our house furiously the day before so that it looks more perfect than it ever does on a day to day basis,

then let the photographer (me) pose you in "natural looking" spaces in your house the entire shoot.

but the kind of real where the daughter stayed in her school uniform she came home in for half the shoot, mom put on her most familiar, faded skirt, the house was the kind of messy that happens when mom is out of town and dad is left in charge for a few days, and they hardly paused in their afternoon routine for the few poses i DID make them endure (okay, i broke down at times and couldn't help myself).

it was hard to shoot. and it wasn't. because the thing about truth is its liberating. and liberation is addictive.