Backstory

Rod Stewart sang, "Every Picture Tells a Story." The question that remains to be asked, however, is what story, specifically? Let's take the pictures of Max and Jolie, for example.

While we were making portraits one day  last November, I noticed Max making pictures of us and the view camera with his cell phone (which is not an unusual occurrence). After about ten minutes, he approached us and struck up a conversation. It turns out that he's a photographer as well, from Italy. We liked his funky look and style, so we asked him to pose.

Standing off to the side was Max's lovely girlfriend, Jolie. So while Max sat and compose some thoughts for us, we got to work photographing Jolie.

After completing her portrait and having her write to the prompt "What's life like for you right now?", we engaged both of them a bit further in conversation. It turns out that they were planning to marry in Miami in a few weeks. He, a 42 year-old divorcé, and she a Jewish twenty-five year-old. Her family is not thrilled, she told us; but love will out.

Viewing the pictures independently, and without the context of the romantic backstory, their pictures "read" a certain way. Now that you have a little insight about the people, do the pictures tell a very different story? I think so.