5  stories to tell you why…

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I come home after a tiring and bad day.

I sit down to have a drink and stare blankly at the wall. Suddenly I feel better and realize that I am fortunate and happy and understand that a bad day is just a first world problem.

I see my two kids, now teenagers, who are laughing and rolling around. I see their teeth that seem too big for their faces, their static hair.

It is that photograph, pinned to the wall that reminds me of those perfect loving moments and I feel grateful.

 

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My parents are moving house and I have to help.

I start wrapping up cups and plates with old newspaper and then I finally arrive at that drawer that was always going to be last on the list.

I know it’s going to take me all day, it’s the drawer with the photos. Big, small, old, new. 40 years of photos. I make a start and then one by one my mother, sister and children show up and we start telling never-ending stories. Some I lock up in the safe. There is only one copy and who know where the negatives are. My mum as a young woman. Gorgeous! It picks me up, photographed by my dad, a keen amateur photographer. I want one like that! I keep one of me as a baby, a small print. And it was that photograph that then created my style for photographing kids.

 

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A few years ago I took some photos.

of my sister and brother in law with their newly adopted daughter.

I had never shown them the photos but for Christmas, I decided to put them together in a frame and give it to them as a gift. It was the best gift that they received that Christmas. As she unwrapped the parcel my sister burst out crying. She hang it in her office and always tells me how it helps her through the day to look at her picture of “pure love”.

 

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Dear Laura!

Do you know why you should print your photograph?

Because you are beautiful and complex. Looking at it can give you strength. Strength when sometimes you feel like you have none. Find answers, new roads to walk down, possibilities, by looking at your face. I want every woman to remember that looking at her face is a way to help her love herself.

 

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 The phone rings and I pick up.

Its Enrica a new client but I can’t hear anything, just strange noises coming from the other end. Then I understand.

Enrica is crying with emotion as she thanks me. Now I start crying too. From happiness at my mission accomplished. I had sent her an album of photos as a gift. I had chosen the ones that were particularly touching: Pietro who’s 5, Anna 2 and husband Marco with that devoted look that we all aspire to. That one goes on the nightstand. Sweet dreams!