Shannon Leith is a photographer and friend of mine, who wanted updated images of herself for her websites.

Her requests:  simple, show her quiet side, against a white wall, focus on her eyes.

I took her around the corner from my house, behind a Big Lots, and spent about an hour talking to her and pushing the shutter. The light was freaky – sun going in and out of the clouds. It was …. um, noon. We both laughed that I was a photographer shooting another photographer in the worst light of the day.

I hadn’t met Shannon prior to photographing her, but she gave herself to me completely. She talked and I listened.

I was mesmerized.

This session has brought up the topic of “seeing” between Shannon and I.

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I operate under the belief that people really just want to be seen. If you can truly see someone, you give them a gift.

I use this philosophy in my work and as a mother. I don’t think I can do anything more important for my children than to truly see them.

Same for my clients. I take in everything that I could possibly think, and stop thinking.

And just see.

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Shannon shared this on her twitter feed today, and I wanted to post it along with her photos:

“One of the deepest longings of the human soul is to be seen.” – John O’Donohue

xo

Tara