Please, Wear a Mask

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When someone books a session with me, they receive a booking confirmation email with paperwork and details about what to expect from a session with me.

For the first time, (and hopefully the last), I added a paragraph;

“One more thing about your session - Please come to your session wearing your masks so I can take a few photos of you as a family wearing them. I know this may seem like a strange request, but I feel compelled to record this weird time in our history, with hopes that a year from now it will be a thing of the past. If later on you do not want that photo of your family all wearing masks, you don't have to look a them. But if it strikes you as telling part of your family's story, your experience, you'll have it! (I will email your mask portrait to you for free after your session).”

I wondered if there would be push-back on this. Would my clients not want this horrific experience documented? Would they prefer I simply photograph their family, or outdoor bar mitzvah, or couples session as though it was any other year? I can’t say I would blame them if so. I thought for sure that some people would ask that I not photograph them wearing their masks, or they would ask that the images not be shared.

There was not one objection. They all seemed to understand the importance of taking such a photo. In fact, many expressed how important they thought it was to document it. Some have even mentioned including it in their annual holiday card this year! Documentarians after my own heart!

I find the children especially interesting in these photos. Some have eyes that shine bright while they smile beneath the fabric, many wear their masks with comfortable acceptance, and some have the body language of pure fed-upness. I hear you, kid.

I am often expressing gratitude for my clients on this blog and today is no different. They helped me do something unusual during a most bizarre and unsettling year. They connected with me for family photos, and every last one graciously accepted a request from me and the result is this collection.

For my clients, and many other reasons, I am so thankful!

(click to enlarge)


• Maureen's Family {boston family photography} •

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Maureen and I have known each other since just before the first photo in this collection was taken thanks to our childhood backyards abutting one another.

It makes me incredibly happy to see her with her own kids now! Along with her mom Ada, we went out to Wayland and enjoyed the sun going down and the trees glowing.

 

 

European Adventure

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I feel really fortunate to have super friends and to be able to travel. Annually, I join two of my friends, Nirvi and Libby, on a girls trip somewhere. In the past we have visited Leesburg, VA (lovely shops and great wineries!), New Orleans, Puerto Rico, and Quebec.

This past year (because she's wicked smaht), Nirvi was promoted from her role at Politico in DC to Politico in Brussles, Belgium (Oh no! We'll just have to have the girls trip in Europe this year!). 

Nirvi, Libby and I spent a few days in Paris (though Libby, who hails from FL, was delayed a day by Hurricane Matthew). Then Libby and I continued on to Nice, France where we were joined by her friend Samantha for a few days. After that, Libby went back to the States and I visited Nirvi in Brussels.  And then, since I was over there anyway so why not, I traveled to Barcelona for a few days alone, because I've always wanted to go there.

Click to enlarge (and click-through), roll your cursor over the open photos to see a caption.

Please remember that while I am happy to share these with you, all of the images on this site are copyrighted, so don't let me catch you selling t-shirts with a my photo of a crepe-maker on them!

Fourth Of July

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I wasn't very active with my camera over the 4th of July weekend. I can never completely turn it off, but as I age, I have learned to slow down and enjoy with my eyes and soul a bit too, rather than feeling a need to document at all times. But still, I did. Some with my big kid camera gear and some with my phone. Now that I've joined Instagram (@CydScottPhoto) I've been enjoying the inspiration I'm finding there from other photographers in addition to the challenge of shooting in square format, often with the phone, and sharing work slightly different than my everyday stuff. 

Below is a combination of both! Scroll over the photos for more info. 

My Ann Arbor; A Recent Visit to My Parents' Alma Mater, U of M

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This entry is a bit of a personal one mashed up with professional. I spent all of last week at a symposium for the University Photographers Association of America (UPAA) of which I am a member as a staff photographer for Boston University. Every year the symposium is hosted by a different university, and this year was a special one for me because it was at the University of Michigan, which is where my parents went.

The conference was great. I relearned a lot of things I forgot about, made some new friends, had some interesting conversations about our field and the challenges within it.

Simultaneously, I got to know the place where my parents met. During the spare time we had between lectures and clinics and shooting competitions (photography, not skeet) I wandered the campus and found the places my parents lived when they were here in the early sixties. I experienced something I have never experienced before; sentimentality on someone else's behalf. I felt an emotional pull to Ann Arbor somehow. The campus was beautiful and it's downtown alive and peaceful at the same time (of course it is summer time and the student population is down, so there's that!).  I visited the sorority house my mom lived in and could see her in my mind, walking out the door with her books in her arms, heading up the walkway to class, many years younger than I am now. 

One of may favorite pictures of my parents is from their time together at UofM. It's black and white and dreamy and they lounge on a lawn together, my mom in her sixties bob hair style and my dad laying in the grass looking cool holding a cigarette. It was taken by my uncle Billy when he was visiting them from Switzerland as a teenager. 

I told anyone at the conference who would listen about the picture and how I wanted to try and have my photo taken in the same spot. Anyone Who Would Listen was very nice about me going on and on about Mom and Dad, and one shooter even joined me wandering the main campus trying to find where, exactly, photo was taken (thanks again, Peter!). We even tried asking at the grad student library but no one was sure where it was taken. So, no reinactment took place (being a photographer and not a model, I was OK with that).

Before I left for this trip, I also asked my dad where he lived, and so I headed to Mary Court where I introduced myself and told the young woman sitting on the porch "My dad lived here in the sixties!"  She thought this was very cool. Since spring semester was done, I asked her if she was in a summer session. No, she told me, and continued on about how she was soon leaving to teach english in South America, and her roommate, who was just inside, would be leaving that afternoon herself. "It's sort of a sad day for us" she shared "we've lived together since freshman year."  I told her that if she'd like I would take their portrait. She beamed and went inside to collect her roommate and I photographed them together on this porch where I could see my dad sitting playing his guitar.

The other thing I did was visit my mom's childhood home in Detroit. I was relieved to find her neighborhood in good shape, and sad to see so many other surrounding neighborhoods not doing too well. I approached the house, nervous, thinking about all the stories Mom's told me about growing up on this street so long ago; the field at one end where the kids played all sorts of games, and about the one mean kid who taped his guinea pig to his train set, how many great memories she had of her dad who died too young and so on. It was a modest home, and when I approached, the owner was very skeptical. I had a photo of mom in my hand which I'd brought along, and I explained what I was doing there and asked if I could take a few photos. She smiled at my story and my picture of my mom with her birthday cake and two dolls, one in each hand, and said of course I could. 

So, below is a collection of my favorites from my trip. To learn about what's going on in the photo, just scroll your cursor over the picture and a cutline will come up. 


Let's Hear It For New York!

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I spent the long weekend with my Mom and friends in NYC. It was a great few days with lots of shows, people watching (and it was fleet week!), amazing food, ad even a touristy visit to the Empire State building. 

For a change of pace I decided to share them in black and white. Oooo ahh oh!

Florida

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I thought I'd share some personal photos this time. These are from a recent trip to Florida to see friends and participate in the Lake Worth Street Painting Festival. My friend Shannon and I chose to "paint" (really it's drawing with pastels) a character from the movie The Book Of Life.

While I was visiting, I went with my friend Libby to Miami to a neighborhood called Winwood Walls. It's an amazing place where most of the buildings have murals on them. Public art is good stuff!

Robin Williams

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While I prefer to think of all the great things a person did with their life and not their actual death, recording events is part of what I do. It's also part of how I deal with emotions, sad and happy. So, today I took an early lunch break and went down to the Boston Common to photograph the outpouring of Boston love and appreciation for the brilliant Robin Williams.  

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Adventures in Puerto Rico {travel photography}

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Today's posting is a personal one. Every year I travel with my friends Nirvi and Libby. Last year it was New Orleans, this year we decided on Puerto Rico. We were not disappointed!

It's a beautiful island. We had wonderful meals. We saw great sites; the old forts throughout the city, the bioluminescence off the island of Vieques (and took a tiny plane ride to get there), El Yunque National Rainforest, to name a few.

My Lovely Weekend

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It started many years ago when I came home from upstate New york, where I was living at the time, and I had only the long Labor Day weekend. I asked that this collection of people get together for the weekend in the cape, so I could spend time with everyone during my short visit. From that was born our annual Labor day weekend. This year, it couldn't happen right on Labor Day, so we did a little switch-a-roo. 

Enjoy!