emilia: june 18, 2018

Let it be clear that this kid wasn't bribed with lolipops. Nobody yelled at anybody. Nobody was uncomfortable, or wore clothes that five minutes before had tags on them.

These images came from authenticity, from a child playing with a hose on an unbearably hot June evening, post hotdogs and mac and cheese.  Dana didn't even know I wanted to pull out my camera until I had it in my hands. I didn't even know that before I did it. I saw the fading light and the water, Emilia smitten with summer, oreos on her face, grass on her shoulders. I saw my dear friend Dana, a mother, who is kind and patient and deserving of everything good, and I captured it.

This is regular life. Nothing extraordinary really: a hose and a pink pool and kid with a dirty face. The regular stuff, the smallest details, the stuff of their lives together. But the ordinary isn't ordinary. It's art. And my job, my purpose in this world, is to bring it forth via a camera and words, for you to recognize it. For it to shine in the light.

The following are half of the images I shot last evening in a span of about twenty minutes.