The Fortuitous Femme…

When a woman invites you into her home…it’s special; when she invites you into her bedroom, it’s sacred.  An invitation into the intimate areas of a women’s space is an exploration of our sanctuaries, as well as, some of our most precious and personal affects and some of the keys to our personalities.

So, when a woman invites you into her bedroom to photograph her, it’s an immortalization of that space and the way she relates to it in that moment.  The space and the affects that dapple it are rarely ever fleeting, they may be fanciful, but they are not fleeting.  Thus, to be immortalized on film and to welcome a relative stranger into the sanctuary of her space and the sacredness of herself, I am and always, inexplicably honored and humbled.

We as women, true and imperfect, protective and profound, rarely get to express ourselves in ways beyond the superficial experience…the “face we show the world”…not to imply that we are hiding…but rather, that we are generally regarded in a different light.  As caretakers, we tend to embrace that perception more wholly and forget that there is more to our makeup than caretaker, nurturer, kisser of “booboo’s” and mate to our partners.  We have power beyond what is perceived and value beyond which is ever fully recognized. That is why I love photographing women in their “boudoir”.  It allows the woman to see themselves in a way they rarely are able and to express themselves in a way beyond which they are normally ever perceived.  Getting just a glimpse of that…like a “shimmer” you only half-see out of the corner of your eye…we women understand we have sensuality, we tend to simply look past it because it’s not needed in how we are perceived daily.  Photographing it, immortalizing it and knowing it’s there…it’s our secret key.

The key that remains on the chain around our necks…closest to our hearts and reminds us that we are more than we see.  Other than the love a mother has for a child, is there anything more powerful than our sense of sensual self…the essence of our womanhood?   I am not sure…but, I know that I will forever be honored and humbled when invited into a women’s home to be given the chance to show her, her own inner power and how beautifully it translates to film.

This is one such moment…the beauty and grace that is Nashell.  Thank You for allowing me.

~ by Fortuitous Photography on September 8, 2011.