Truth: I’ve procrastinated in posting this blog for a few days. I’ve found ways to do everything except this post because to do it justice I would need to be in the right headspace that allows me to lay it all bare. Nearly a decade ago I photographed Elizabeth and Nathan at their Milwaukee Art Museum wedding. I still quote hilarious parts of Elizabeth’s dad’s welcome speech to couples and I remember each and every photo I took of them that day, it seems. But more importantly, I remember:
Congratulating them as they climbed Mt. Medicine, completing seemingly innumerable years of education, residency, perhaps a fellowship. Meeting their new baby Eloise at home in a cozy Tosa house where I was thrilled to spy a wedding photo or two in the dining room. Learning they would be parents again and hugging them close on a jetty overlooking Lake Michigan for a maternity session. Having Eloise remember me (fondly) when I came to photograph her new baby sis Clementine. The excitement I felt when Elizabeth asked me if I would be interested in documenting the transformation of a pretty nice house they just bought into their Forever Home. The joy I felt when I saw her baby belly for a third time in that house-in-progress.
And so it seems that over the years I haven’t really been doing photo sessions for Elizabeth & Nathan. I’ve been recording their stories, chapter and verse, image and moment. I’ve never started a newborn blog post with maternity photos or with construction photos, but in this photographic novel I’m writing Isla Mae’s role isn’t properly prefaced with out those. Her life is the epic next chapter without which the story of Elizabeth & Nathan could never be complete. We don’t know who she is yet, how she fits into their family of 5, if she likes chocolate or olives or sprinkles. Will she be a soccer player like her parents? Will she be a cuddle bug like Clementine and be devoted to all things unicorn like Eloise? Or will she be a classic third child – a little bit of everyone and yet wholly her own person? Yes, that sounds about right and what I imagine Elizabeth & Nathan hope for her. Because in the story they are showing me how to tell for them there is space for tradition and family, for preserving and creating a new, for work and play, for Eloise and Clementine and now Isla.
And now may I present the newest sister of Eloise Delaney & Clementine Birdie, the dear and adorable Isla Mae. She is photographed here in her grandparent’s home just a few blocks from the oh-so-close-to-being-complete forever home her parents are creating for her.
