Intimate Moments

I hope my teaching points have not gotten redundant. I try to reinvent myself, like I try to reinvent my photography, every day. But I know it’s easy to fall into ruts, ruts we sometimes don’t even see.

I say that because four years ago I wrote a piece called “Intimacy,” about the value of using our images to explore intimacy in the moments of our lives. Then last night, working at the annual Relay for Life cancer fundraising event, I ran into long-time friend and cancer survivor Tresa Euper. We talked for a while, then both went in different directions when the opening ceremonies started. As I waited for the start of the “survivor lap,” that marks the start of the all-night walk, we were all set upon by smartphone photographers who were all making essentially the same photo over and over: the hold-away selfie. Grip, grin, snap. Grip, grin, snap.

Then I looked over and, with my 80-200mm f/2.8, shot about three frames of this…

Tresa Euper shares a moment with her husband.
Tresa Euper shares a moment with her husband.

I shared the image with her on Facebook (her only web presence), and she replied, “Oh Richard, you captured a special moment – one where I was thinking of just how much my ‘caregiver’ went through right alongside me in my fight. All survivors owe so much to all of our caregivers. Thank you so much for this. It’s a picture I’ll treasure forever. And it’s always so good to see you too!

Intimacy.

1 Comment

  1. Beautiful. This is something I am always trying to achieve in my photos. It is difficult to catch people in an unguarded moment, which is why this is such an affecting image.

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