It’s one thing to make a picture of what a person looks like,
Paul Caponigro
it’s another thing to make a portrait of who they are.
This young lady is an artist. At the time this image was taken in 2010 she was a senior in high school. Life had not been easy for her and her mother, and some of that is what you see in her eyes. But, I think what you really see is the strength and determination of this young lady. She was teaching herself to play the guitar as the money for lessons was not there. She enjoyed drawing. She was also one heck of a basketball player.
Six months prior to this image she, her mother and myself went hiking in the Hocking Hills area near Columbus, Ohio. I brought along my old D100 and a lens for her to play with. She enjoyed the photography and we were able to shoot together a couple more times. So, that Christmas I gave her one of my old D100s, a 50mm f1.8 lens, a spare battery and charger, a couple of memory cards, a small camera bag and the manual. She cried. Her mom cried. I grinned. So, because Riley and I had been able to connect over the past six months it was easy for her to drop all masks and make eye contact for this image. I could be nuts but in those eyes is an artist so I agree with Caponigro.