"Amaselu"

This is a portrait of “Amaselu.” The image is mostly blurred because she absolutely did not want her likeness to be taken photographically. And I was glad she trusted me to shoot her in a blurred state. As a matter of fact, I like blurred imagery and was happy to have at least a few done this way. Also I’m trying to balance the black-and-white works (majority) with more color images--of which this is.

In my field work, Amaselu must be one of the very few with the hardest childhoods I have heard of. In addition to being a witness in her mother’s successful suicide attempt, her life after that traumatic event was unbelievably difficult. That she shared the details with me in a recorded interview was quite amazing to me. Currently she is a struggling painter (contemporary paintings with a good resume/record, MFA from a East Coast University) trying to make ends meet doing other work.