I've known this woman for about a decade now. Which is bizarre to me in the best of ways. As we get older and (for the most part) wiser, we look back to old connections that are still current. Friends you haven't seen in almost ten years or a few months. I look back on my time spent hanging out with her fondly. We used to mail actual handwritten letters to each other (and will once again when I get my address finalized) while I was in art school and she in Pennsylvania. Both of us being writers, the idea of sending handwritten letters was frankly heartwarming to me in this digital age bathed in social media. She had never modeled for photographs before our shoot, and during my recent year in Pittsburgh, I pitched the idea of featuring her on my website, which sounded less creepy during the actual conversation. Once she was on board, she dressed in an outfit inspired by the film, "The Craft." I had never seen the film, which baffled me due to my love of film, along with my mild obsession with Neve Campbell. The shoot took place on June 7th, 2016. It went like most of my other shoots: directing poses and doing my best to make people feel comfortable enough in front of the camera to be the truest form of themselves or whoever they want to be. To me, beyond all the technical aspects and terms regarding photography, at its core, it's all about trust. I think that's why I hold all of these photos to such a high standard. Regardless of how people change, either physically or behaviorally, they are still the same human beings at their core. So to photograph Ali in that respect felt like an honor. I felt as if I was capturing who she was and who she wanted to become at the time. The last time I saw her was on June 10th of this year while I was visiting Pittsburgh for my sister's graduation, just one year and four days after our shoot. Since the shoot, she has kept on with her life, lost weight in the process, and changed her hair, but she's still Ali, only now she reminds me of the actress Robin Wright. I do my best to keep in contact with her; I really want to start up that letter chain again. I know she's doing okay, and that she'll continue to do so. One day, I hope to shoot with her again, whether it involves her coming out to California or me flying out to Pennsylvania again. Considering that this is the longest retrospective I've done to date, it goes without saying that these photos are special to me, as she is an especially important person in my life, and as much as I can keep talking on and on about her, there are other things I must do. So I'll just say this to Ali: Thank you for letting me do this. Taking the photos, sharing them with people, and well... being an example of a true counterpoint in all good relationships, platonic or otherwise. Most of all, thank you for letting me be myself as I have let you be you. - Scott*
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Mark "Scott" Raineri
Independent Filmmaker & Photographer who likes crafting evocative and iconic images. |