Moving faster
I've been running fast and I know from experience it's easy to run myself down. Now in my sixties I can see I pushed myself in an unkind way and my health suffered. But there is much I want to/have got to get done.
After two refusals on a book treatment about the psychology of the objectified woman, I'm ready to take on both publisher suggestions that I broaden my approach to take in the last 38 years in fashion. This way I can tell a story of fashion, clothes and my experience of the industry itself and cover my body image/identity agendas through stealth.
I am warming to this. What it also means for 2020 is stopping. And getting my head down. I'll need to trawl through my past and present it in a way that makes compelling reading! I'll need to edit my experiences as a body image activist to make good copy. As we approach the new year this is my challenge to myself.
I recently had a portrait session with my friend and (in demand photographer) Sarah Creswell. Check her out for your own professional portraits. Her lighting is fantastic and her way with the person in front of the lens (me in this instance) is very collaborative.
The happy image you see first, is a natural press shot. It's exactly what I was aiming for. We made lots of those and my agent is happy too! And before you ask earrings are by Tea Party at the Zoo.
The second image embodies the phrase I've heard other lensmen and women refer to as "the moment between the moments."When I first saw it, I barely recognised it as me and couldn't see a natural fit for it. We both laughed and said it was the Radio 4 shot; the sort of image that heralds a speaker's look back over the decades, if you please.
A strange thing is happening...the more I look at it, the more I love it and the more I see a head full of stories waiting to be told.
Watch this space!