Photography is my language

Taking portraits is a way for me to show what I see and feel. The beauty of people as they are, as they want to be, and as they want to be remembered. 

As the youngest of four in a working family, I grew up looking at and up to the women in my family and neighborhood. They cared for me and for each other, in San Francisco where I was born, and later in Idaho and the Bay Area. 

I delighted in watching my mother get ready to go to work, transforming into her public persona with her crisp white uniform, neatly done hair and polished shoes. A final swipe of lipstick added glamour.

When I'm taking portraits I'm looking for that universal human element as expressed in the individual details and stories of their lives. Everybody has a story. 

Sometimes I hear the click of the camera and know that what I've captured is that story, a lifetime of living that shows in the skin and clothes and background of the images.  At that moment the technical elements fall away and something transcendent happens. There is an exchange between me and the subject when the essence of that person's story comes through the camera and into the image. It's something that we create together. 

MARIAN

Photographer