Description
When I was 17, my older sister Susan let me photograph her. I was amazed at how her newly prominent veins and capillaries defined her pregnant body as they raced down her arms and across her abdomen and breasts. I felt I could almost see the growing child through her pale skin. ?Around the turn of the millennium, it was as though I was surrounded by women colleagues, family, friends who were expecting, and I felt an urgency to photograph them.Perhaps the urgency I felt had to do with knowing their pregnancy was limited to nine or so months. To photograph a woman before she gives birth, a loved one before they die, the sunlight before it fades and grows dark are all a motivation, and expression of the life force. Inspired by altar paintings from the Italian Renaissance, I used my 7x17 panoramic camerafor standing portraits. When I realized my subjects sometimes had trouble balancing, I also made horizontals, with the recumbent portraits of Francisco de Goya'sNaked Maja,Edouard Man
