I already wrote in length about my shoot with Emily in Act 1 but I guess I still have more to say-

Working with Emily helped me re-learn the importance of laughter and joy as an emotion to be captured.

You see, I’ve kinda made it my thing to bring to the surface the shadow emotions lately, mainly because those are the types of images that really move me personally. (And if you aren’t creating things that excite you, both for yourself AND your clients, why even bother? Life is too damn precious and short.)

I find the act of holding space for someone to be vulnerable and then capturing that for them deeply rewarding. I wouldn’t so far as to say that it’s my calling but it does add another layer to my work. It’s infused with more energy. The emotional images just vibrate more.

But Emily…

Emily has a laugh that rings out through the halls. She laughs when she’s happy, she giggles when she’s nervous, she just oozes HaHaHA! (She also contains multitudes and holds all of the darker emotions within her, just like everyone else.)

And so when I set out to go deep with her during our shoot I quickly learned that my desire to get her to unleash and her desire to keep tethered those most powerful and sacred feelings were at odds.

So I backed off. With emotional work you absolutely cannot push. All you can do, all you are allowed to do, is be fully present without judgement for someone’s emotional release.

We weren’t spelunking into the cave of sorrows. There was no swimming in the sea of despair to be had. This time.

But what happened instead was laughter. And I was (thank goodness for continual self-work) in tune with the Universe at the time enough to see the lesson in the redirection.

Joy is a gift. Elation is a wonder. To capture a genuine smile is just as much an act of emotional trust between the photographer and subject as is capturing grief. I, of all people, should have known this. There is only one photographer who was able to capture a genuine smile from me. Because she made me feel safe enough to open. (Just like the darker emotions can be hard for some people to access so too can the lighter ones be difficult for others.)

And so again I say thank you to Emily and thank you to the Universe for helping me see that there is just as much magic in a smile as there is in sorrow. I don’t think I’ll be pivoting to the happy-go-lucky genre anytime soon but I am now much more open to jubilation.

Makeup by the talented Tish Ferguson.