“My hands are really messed up,” she said, though she used stronger language. “I want you to take pictures of them.”
“Heck yeah!”
Maybe I should back up a bit. When I met my friend Rochelle, she was a promising young writer who was in love with (and often troubled by) food. A Food Network devotee, and rabid consumer of the best food writing around. She was also not just attractive, but self-consciously sexy, the kind of girl who would wear make-up and high heels to a college class instead of the more traditional sweatpants and hair scrunchy.
But she wanted more, and unlike so many, she was willing to suffer for it. She moved to New York, a place entirely devoted to testing yourself in face of misery. She dealt with the crazy landlords and ludicrous NYC prices, but nothing really compared to the challenge of learning to cook in world-class kitchens. She enrolled at the French Culinary Institute, and later started working at Aldea, currently one of the hottest hot spots in the world of NYC cuisine.
And it tested her, every day. Gone were the Manolo Blahniks, replaced by sensible shoes that would grip slippery kitchen floors. Gone was the make-up, which would just melt down her face after 16 hours standing in a steaming kitchen. She got screamed at by some of the best people in the business, constantly beaten-down so that she could be better. She tells these stories much better than I could on her blog.
And it showed, above all, in her hands. Once perfectly kept, they are currently bruised and grimy, scabbed and burned, with fingernails worn down and ragged. Hands of a worker, tempered by a thousand hot pans. These were battle scars, a mark of respect and transition.
So we took photos of them. I was even more excited because it was such an interesting challenge — how do you photograph someone’s messed-up hands and tell an evocative story? One that’s not about abuse, but self-abuse in cause of ambition (something I know a bit about, as my physical trainer will tell you)? I chose to play a lot with shadows and light, and it really helped me to approach a fresh project in new ways, something that I want to do a lot this year as I reach out and experiment.
To me, being a photojournalist merely means you tell stories through photography. I am usually blessed to tell the stories of people’s happiest days, and I love that. But to keep my photography fresh and evolving I need to also be driven in my personal work, and there are lots of other stories to tell. No matter whether I succeeded in making these photos evocative, though, they are photos of injuries, so I’ll keep the more explicit ones behind an HTML cut. (If you came here from a direct link, you won’t be blocked by the cut, so consider this your warning!) But first, let’s show her backstory with photos that I, for some reason, haven’t posted!
I think this one tells the story of where she came from succinctly. Note the cheeky smile and the dude checking her out.
Here’s one from the hands shoot that doesn’t show any of the burns much. If you’re not squeamish, click through to the link beyond.
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Kate Duval - Ok, so on iPad slide shows….we always do ours on the 24″ imac with images from the day. Feels like it is harder to run off with, the images look awesome that big, and it is our platform for loading and picking them…would love to hear your thoughts on really using the ipad for this. I’m thinking the ipad would be a better book reader than slide shower for us.
Ryan Brenizer - It doesn’t replace a big screen, definitely, but I cant do that at most weddings; i’m not bringing an iMac to Singapore for instance. It is a pretty good substitute for a laptop display, and has a small footprint so it can go anywhere it looks best. I don’t think it will get stolen since, by definition, there will be 20 or more people watching it, and it’s cheaper than the MacBook pro we’ve been using.
Dennis Pike - If his beard wasn’t quite so rockin, I would have said it contributed to the lack of ladies.
Div - You guys were awesome, the iPad was definitely a hit, I just couldn’t get over some of the shots you took, simply amazing and truly inspiring for amature photographers like myself. Based on this picture, the iPad definitely has the edge versus have no iPad :)
brett maxwell - but have you used it as an iso12800 softbox yet?
Ryan Brenizer - That will come, brett. We had too many real softboxes this time.
Luis Godinez - HAHA! Clearly the man w/ the iPad wins.
Chavvon Smith - just another reason for the wife to say no to the ipad ;)
ryan smith - I’ve noticed pictures really pop on the iPad screen. I’m going to start using it to show clients my portfolio.