Hi there, sharers of BEAUTY, my community of PHOTOGRAPY LOVERS, hope you are all doing well!
Today I want to present you one of my favorites & one of the best shots I ever took, long ago, perhaps 15 years ago, when I was still in high school.
HERE comes the "POWER TO OVERCOME" and her story!
I hope you enjoy and see the BEAUTY of her portrait!
I met this absolutely beautiful kid on a train trip, there was a strong connection between us, we talked a lot & exchanged stories about life. At some point she sees my camera and she asked me if I might be able to take a picture of her, as that is what she wants to give me as gift, so that she will always be remembered by me. She also said that never in her life, a picture of her was taken, never, and she is curious about how that feels.
She took a deep breath and she jumped off her seat, shouting out of joy: "I am READY!"... then her beautiful radiant smile was hidden under this serious powerful expression. I must admit that I told her to give me that smile so I might have that immortalized. She was strictly refusing, completing with: "That's for your heart to remember, and I want to show you how strong I am, what a strength and power of overcoming life's adversities lies inside of me, so like this when you will have a problem in life you will look at my picture and it will give you the power to face what you have to face, and if you will ever become an official photographer, please put my picture first, like this the World will know how strong I am!"
During this entire time her sisters were laughing at us. She said: "Don't mind them, even if they are older than me, they are the youngest as it is me who takes them out of trouble most of the time!"
All this powerful life and soul lesson I had the chance to soak in while her path and mine were intersecting on that train, it became a strong mile stone of my existence.
I never exhibited any of my arts all those 15 years, until last December when I decided to "get out of the closet" / out of the black room where all these "films" were stored, I told myself that it is time for the world to see the beauty of the "POWER TO OVERCOME"!
Also I forgot to mention that I wanted to give the pictures to them, yet the girl refused, saying: "I know who I am, I don't need a picture for this, the picture is for you, yet I was very curious to see and experience how it feels like to have someone taka a picture of me."
It was one of the most spiritual encounters with the subjects of my photography that I have immortalized along these years.
The shorter one as you can see if you look closely, has some features in common with the young one. The taller one was finding her self somewhere in between, wanting to smile yet she wanted to be more serious like her younger sister, so here is the result.
After we got out of the train, ironically at the same station, we took the same bus in the same direction where they met their brother and like this I had the chance to see and meet all of the siblings. I have no doubt that my lovely "Power to overcome" had something different, a spark, a light, a wisdom which was unique to her & not shared by her other brother and sisters. For me she is and will remain a Divine messenger.
After 15 years, when the picture was selected for a collective exhibition of mixed media artists, I had a tremendous hard time to find a place where they could print my picture in the size I wanted without loosing the resolution & quality. I spent days walking like crazy through different photo print shops in London and few towns in Kent, they all could not print it as I wanted and all of them suggested to me that I would have to choose a smaller dimension. I almost gave up, yet I told myself that this would be such a cosmic joke and a failure of everything I learned from that girl.... giving up on printing "The Power To Overcome".... how funny ah?
I had stopped looking around for a couple of days, yet the deadline was coming closer and closer. One day I woke up with the idea of contacting a friend who had lived more than 20 years in London and as he was active in the events industry, organizing his own festivals and even running his own newspaper, I thought to myself that he will be the savior, as for sure he would know where I could find that print studio that I needed. He was indeed, he put me in contact with one of his friends who had all kind of printers and printing equipment.
So up there in the picture is Dorian who made it possible to physically rebirth the "Power to Overcome" as he succeeded to print "her" in the size I wanted.
Here is the first "stranger" who saw the print of her, as I did not choose to frame the picture in a classic manner nor to sell the original, so I presented myself only with prints, yet due the nature of the "product" it was impossible to be hung on the wall of the gallery. I decided to improvise like she would do :) and I know she would be glad of my work. So i had to run into a shop from where I purchased duct tape which I bent over the back of the print in order to create some stable hooks. It worked out properly! I know she would be happily smiling.
Off we go, and here we are, after 15 years. The World was waiting for her. She is not impressed nor am I. :)
Before improvising the hooks.
I do have pictures with her on the wall, yet I don't feel like sharing that, as that's not the point of this post.
I have to mention that I did not attended the exhibition nor the artists night before the doors were opened for the public as those kind of gatherings are far away from my lifestyle and taste.
I also do not agree with the art world on the large scale and all of that show.... yet I had to fulfill the promise I had made 15 years ago.
And perhaps that will remain the only time I was and will ever be exhibiting in a gallery.
I have started and hereby end this post with "THE POWER TO OVERCOME" once again.
Thank you for reading all of this! I hope you felt something! Anything!
With LOVE,
Iulia Qiparosa!
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