lightness of being a woman.

Taken with a 50mm lens, at f/1.8, the focus here is on the bouquet of dried roses, with the body of a woman in the blur. The image speaks of the process of aging, of staying vital and beautiful as the years mount. There is such pressure on women to look a certain way, to conform to a certain standard of beauty. And even though we age, the arbitrary standard never does. It is always young and firm, bouncy and round, supple and sinuous.

Unlike a good wine, with humans, aging is complicated. We continue to get better in certain ways, and yet we decline in others. There is a give and take that occurs. What we gain in wisdom, we lose in elasticity. I had a friend who was in her 90's and she said that when she randomly caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror, she wondered for a second who that old woman was, the one looking back at her. When asked how old she felt on the inside, she said, "I feel about 25, maybe 30." And then she smiled, and I could see her as the ten year old girl she had once been. Her eyes still had that twinkle, that spark, even though her face bore the marks of the passing of the years. There was a lightness in her spirit.

My friend was a lot like this bouquet of flowers. When I look at them, they are dried, wrinkled, crispy, and yet I see beauty there in the creases, evidence of having lived. I see perfection in their imperfections. I keep them around because of the memories associated with them. They remind me of one of the happiest occasions of my life. I see beyond the dessication.

There are other photos in this series, which I will be sharing and writing about soon. Please stay tuned for more.

Until next time...

Anne

Eyes may be windows to the soul; but windows are the eyes and soul of a building. The character of the architecture is defined largely by the type and style of windows that are used in its construction. Paris is a city of filled with wonderful windows, French windows as they are called in English, where the frames swing inward, allowing one to pass through to a balcony suspended above the tree tops, allowing in light and breezes to refresh interior spaces.

Windows permit one to see into the heart of a building, to glimpse what is going on beyond the panes of glass, hinting at the lives lived behind the walls. And they permit one to see out, to view the world and all its happenings through a frame of glass and wood. Windows allow for an exchange of elements and energy, giving life and vitality to a space. Uncovered windows are welcoming, inviting. They draw us in. And they draw out.

In homage to my love of windows, I have created a series of photos, "Parisian Windows," exploiting the notion of a frame within the frame. The photos are inherently voyeuristic. They invite the viewer to look, to examine, unabashedly, shamelessly. They reveal different moods, each one inviting the viewer to imagine a back story.

With reflections upon the glass and the play of light and shadow, the photos are soft, dream-like, contemplative, evoking the same feelings an an autumn rain or a classical nocturne, poetry borne of glass and wood.

Until next time...

Anne