Jenna (Patreon)

About six months ago, I received a message from Jenna asking if I'd come stay with her in Evansville, Indiana. I thought about it a bit - it's quite a drive, even if I was living in Ohio at the time. In the end, I decided to make the drive for a weekend to see her and stay with her and her family.

The drive itself reminded me a lot of my own environment growing up, which, as a Midwest kid, you can probably guess what I was seeing out the windows driving along the back country roads. Corn, more corn, signs advertising state minimum alcohol and cigarette prices, more corn, and wide sky meeting open roads. Her mother made ambrosia, which is a staple dish I hadn't had since my youth. Imagine fruit cocktail mixed with marshmallows and dried coconut in small glass serving dishes. It sounds horrifying to outsiders I've discovered, but it tastes like hot days after long church services, the thing you ate as your friend showed you her lacy bloomers in the church parking lot cause her mother is afraid the boys might see too much from under the ankle length calico.

I photographed Jenna, and she photographed me, over the course of two days. I edited some photos initially upon returning home. And last night I went back through them and edited a bit more. Perhaps too many - a photographer friend of mine told me I likely have no discernment seeing as I edited so many. And, from a certain perspective, I think he's right. There's some repetition in the images that isn't entirely necessary from a photographer's point of view. But, Jenna is a lovely human being, and I see her in each of these, so I decided to edit and keep them. Sometimes I think that's what matters to me a bit more - the emotion and movement in a photo as opposed to the worry of repetition or complete technical superiority.

I'll be uploading the entire set of Jenna in this set at the $10 level tonight.

Here are the links to her pages:

http://sunshinesugarpeaces.tumblr.com/