Malene

I met Malene through a dating site in Denmark.

As she put it when introducing everyone during her 50th birthday party, it was clear from the start that we would never be romantic partners. Nevertheless, it was also clear that we would likely be friends for life. We both enjoy long in-depth conversations with a focus on understanding and compassion.

She knew that I enjoyed photography, so my work was often included in our discussions. One day, looking through some of my pictures, she pointed out that she was deeply fascinated by the pictures of older people from Cuba, but the pictures of younger women I had taken did not really speak to her.

“That’s fair enough,” I told her. “But try to imagine that this younger woman was your 19 year old daughter.”

I could see this struck a chord for her.

“You’re right,” she admitted. “If this were a picture of my daughter I would love it.”

Some time passed and in a later meeting, she told me she was thinking about asking me to take pictures of her, because she had never liked having her picture taken since early in her childhood. I said I’d be happy to, should she decide that she wanted to.

We did so eventually, and she was surprised how much she enjoyed the experience, but while shooting and when reviewing the pictures later. We then continued taking pictures together on many occasions and even traveling together to get different backdrops.

Eventually, her three children even asked me to take pictures of them together, so that they could produce a book for their mother’s birthday. I felt quite honoured to have that privilege and, it seemed, the children could not have given a better gift.