Secret Insides

Ok. I'll admit it. I am fascinated with other peoples spaces. You know this if I've ever been over to your house. I feel compelled to touch everything. To look at every book you have. To examine every piece of art you've put on your wall. And thus began "Secret Insides"- a quick little study of other peoples spaces. I remember being surprised at how many people still have "sitting rooms" and "parlors" and also how many bathrooms I went in that could easily have qualified as "powder rooms."  

This photo was taken in Ogden when I was photographing my fathers close friends, Ella and Ellen. Ella and her husband were like a second set of parents to my father. Richard worked at Hill Air Force Base with Dad, he died the same month I was born. Ella said she remembered driving by the base at lunch and crying when she saw Dad eating alone after Richard died. Ellen is a devout Jehovah's Witness, and has committed her life to service-especially to her mother, who now requires round-the-clock care. When she moved in there wasn't room for her bedroom set in the bedroom. So she set it up in the living room. 

This was in a narrow little back staircase in a bed and breakfast in Redlands. I was on my way up to photograph a bride getting ready for the ceremony when I noticed the reflection off these frames had essentially erased the portraits.