"Just Me"

We were working on our lesbian project in Provincetown last weekend, approaching likely candidates in the street as they walked by. We stopped one great-looking woman who had a couple of children in tow along with her partner. Initially, she thought we wanted to photograph the kids and demurred. Once we explained our project and made it clear that we wanted to make her portrait, she agreed.

A few days later, as a result of our brief session, the subject of the portrait wrote a poignant blog post, which she has agreed to let me repost, as long as I maintain her anonymity. The repost, sans links, is below, as is her finished portrait. The post speaks for itself...

Just Me

August 2, 2015

This weekend, while in our most favorite ocean-side city, on our best day adventure yet, a lovely man & his wife blind-sided us and approached from behind. They were photographers. And before I could let them fill the space between us with the want to document our family, I said as I so often do, "No thank you. We don't allow photos of our kids." And then the man surprised me. Already, I liked his gentle way. The welcome in his glance, which said he knew things about the world that I did not and that I could only wonder about, left me wanting to hear what he had to say. He redirected the conversation despite the wall I was quick to erect & asked for just me. Not my kids. Not my beautiful wife. Just me. Because I fit the bill for a project he was working on to honor his late sister. Whom I now understand to have been one of the few brave gay women who paved the way for me. Who, like me, identified as a woman in all ways and who, like me, was socially scarred by fear & mean-filled eyes of passersby who would identify us as butch or worse, men. "I'm looking for masculine looking women," he said. And at once, I agreed & thanked him for the opportunity to participate. Thanked him for pushing forward with such a project. Thanked him for being kind.

And then I stood there in the square of that busy intersection, in our favorite ocean-side city, with my family playing nearby & curious people observing, standing on his X marks the spot & looking into the lens of this great camera. 

In all the world, he is the only person to have ever approached such a sensitive topic in such an earnest, honest, kind way. And he is the first person to seek me out and ask for just me.