Emily's Portrait

This is me, Emily Stahl age twenty-nine. Last week my friend Adam Schiesel asked if he could take some portrait photos for a project he is working on. The night before we were going to meet up both my kids came down with a cold and I was feeling like I might be it's next victim. So I called and said I might have to cancel if I couldn't stop blowing my nose, or if the kids had a fever. On friday both children were better. I however could not stop blowing my nose and I had a sore throat, but I'd been looking forward to getting out of the house and I didn't know if I cancelled if I'd get another shot...and my nose wasn't red- yet, besides as Adam pointed out it was in black and white.

I enjoyed seeing Adam's studio and some of the other pictures that he's been working on. He explained things about his camera and the photo style and most of it went over my head. If I understood correctly, something all the pictures have in common is that because the camera has a wide scope, the pictures are soft and fuzzy around the outside and very clear and defined right around the eyes and lips. Some of the first photos he had taken looked aged and lighter around the edges and he said that he'd been given some film that had been aged, I can't remember the correct terminology but someone had left it in a window, or in the light and rotated it and over time the film had faded. I found it interesting looking at the group of people Adam chose to photograph-mostly made up of his friends and co-workers, an Alaskan Coffee Roasting Company/ Lulu's Bagels / Marlin (bar)/ College crowd. Many of the people he has chosen to photograph seem to match the style of photo well. There is a roughness and uniquely rugged and stoic look to many of the participants. I think he has paired the style of photo with some of Fairbanks finest hooligans quite cleverly.