Inner Sanctum
Something I wanted to write about this week is how wild it is that people allow me into such personal, intimate moments in their lives, whether for weddings or other types of shoots. It is a great honor to be trusted by people like this and I try to recognize what a huge responsibility it is to tell people's stories. It's a weird emotional roller coaster I go on every time. Before shooting intimate, behind the scenes situations I think about how to be respectful, then while I'm shooting I'm grappling with how to get good shots while not intruding or losing the subject's trust. Then in culling and editing the images the side of me that wants to prioritize making cool, "epic" shots kind of dominates and I have to actively keep myself in check and think back to the empathetic, respectful intentions I had originally. Sometimes unflattering photos are powerful photos. Is it worth including unflattering photos to help tell the story? Does this sound like gobbledygook? Let me use the wedding I shot this weekend as an example, since it was why I've been thinking about these things.
I shot a great wedding on Saturday between two grooms, one of which is a popular drag performer, performing as Lady V. The couple made sure to let me know that it would be a pretty wild, entertaining evening and that Lady V. and others would be performing. They wanted photos of the process it takes to become Lady V. It felt like a great honor to be invited into the space where all the preparation happens.
There were two other performers at the wedding and they graciously let me document their processes as well. It takes a team to get all together.
The performances were great. Lady V made a dramatic entrance, followed by another dramatic entrance. And another.
The other performers did great as well. It was hard impossible to get a bad shot the whole night.
At the end of the night I was packing up my things and one of the wedding guests ran up to me and said "Someone clogged the toilet and Lady V needs you to get a picture of her fixing it!" I went inside the house to see Lady V furiously plunging away at the toilet. It was a perfect end of the night. Also, this is a great example of what I love about drag culture. It's so glamorous but also so funny and self deprecating at the same time.
