Tell me your story

I love stories. Always have. I still remember my 6th grade teacher, Helen Trexler, reading the book A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle aloud to us as a class. It’s as vivid as yesterday. I can describe the room, the light in the room. I can tell you where my desk was. I can see her standing there; hear her voice. Even tell you how she was dressed.

Hearing that story changed me. That’s what great stories do.

These photographs are portraits of a three wonderful people whose lives and work are wonderful stories. We all have great stories. We are born with them. Something about the process of “growing up” seems to cause a kind of amnesia. We can’t always remember our own story. It took me a long time to remember mine. A handful of remarkable people helped me remember it, and now I realize that every person I have a conversation with is helping me remember my story. Like my friend and fellow photographer, Kim Siedl, who just yesterday helped me remember some keys elements of my own story. All of these people help me remember and tell my own story so that it brings joy and purpose and meaning to life.

The secret to my work as a portrait photographer is to invite my clients to tell me their stories. That’s it. It’s really quite selfish on my part. I am fascinated by their stories. And then while they are telling them to me, I make a few photographs. It’s simple, really.

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