i want to share a set of images with you that i don't consider a family photo shoot so much as i consider it a collaboration with a group of souls, and another artist i respect.
several years ago, i got a strange last minute addition to a workshop i was teaching in seattle. jonya wrote to me and apologized for signing up so late, she had to check the weather you see, to know if it would be cool enough for her to attend. her body reacted in a not normal way to warmer temperatures, and she wouldn't be able to learn very well if the temperature shot over 70. i told her not to worry and that i was glad it worked out for her to come.
Odd, i thought. Fun, i thought.
as soon as she came in the room, i watched the woman with the ghosty skin, and the long dark hair. despite the oddness of her first impression, her demeanor was more normal than i expected, she was funny, and warm (though not in body temp of course). but her photo work held that bit of strangeness i first felt from her, a desire to explore more ethereal and in between spaces in the work she made. i liked it. i liked her a lot. fast forward a year or so later when she hired me to do her family photos, and i drove up to the most amazing portland oregon home i'd ever seen. i'd find out it was an original of some famous architect who's name escapes me now, and who she'd brush over, never one to flaunt. i played along as if it was no big deal to live in a space that felt like real life magic---shared with a husband who showed signs of a black comedy streak, and two children who seemed to be made more of spirit than they were of flesh and bones.
you can see that session here: http://www.yanpalmer.com/blog/cx71q1uuuaq6jyk95elm9nkz6r7d4o
i was so happy when a year or more after that shoot, she asked me to do her family photos again, this time a collaboration in her favorite place, sauvie island. it was less than 70 degrees outside. maybe even less than 60. but near and in the water was where she was meant to be. these are the photos we made.
if you are similarly interested in collaborating on a photo shoot to make something together (this something can include your family or loved ones or not), please know that i consider this very different than doing family photos as you will very much have to show up with your soul and your creative input---reach out yan@yanpalmer.com. This will be a commissioned work, and i will be very selective about projects i take on. but there will be no basis for selection other than resonance for the time and space we happen to be both in, and whether or not that could lend to making something that feels right together.
