Breaking the No-Kids Rule, Again

Baby Alea (with mama Kate Bowen behind).

One of the Fun Things about Film

is that sometimes, you unzip your camera from its bag to see that there's a mysterious half a roll still in there, and there's going to be some great surprise when you get the roll developed.

That's my niece, Taya, one year ago. I always had a vague memory of taking her picture in front of a pile of sweet potatoes.

Little Children Part IV

My cousin Kim asked me to do a little photo shoot of her kids while we were in North Carolina for Thanksgiving.


Ain't my people handsome?

Little Children Part III

That's Ashton.

Little Children Part II

Another moral conundrum.



This is Chloe. Chloe is a FIRECRACKER. Here she is the summer of her Kindergarten year.

When she entered Kindergarten, Chloe's Pre-school teacher pulled the Kindergarten teacher aside and said, "I just want you to have an idea of what Chloe's going to be like. So, she goes into the bathroom one day, and she's taking a while to come out. So I knocked on the door, and said, 'Chloe, are you ok in there?' And she goes, 'SHUT THE FUCK UP!'"

Oh, the stories I've heard about Chloe.

Chloe's got special needs. She's had some problems with blood flow and one side of her body growing faster than the other. She's larger than the other children in her class and is technically classified as a "dwarf." She scares some of them, but she could not care less. She's got A+ sass. She "challenges" her teachers and tutors tremendously - yet all of them fight to be her #1.

So here, in the picture above, she looks upset; it looks like there's something wrong. I cannot convey in this photograph how much of a charming tyrant she can be. When I took this picture she was reading me the fuck-you act, because she'd demanded that I give her my camera so SHE could take pictures, and I had told her she'd have to dry off first. (Seriously. This 5-year-old girl had me about to hand over my Nikon D200 as long as she wiped off her hands.)

So the photograph. It looks exploitative. It may upset. I know Chloe, and I found myself liking the face I caught, maybe even the shock of it. But I know she's about to head-butt me and then jump happily into the pool with her tutor. (Kate.) What you see is someone with special needs looking tragic, but perhaps also comic. Bad taste?

I'm not sure. Regardless...isn't Chloe's tutor hot?

Little Children

As the teacher of a creative discipline, I'm always tickled by the arbitrary rules created by teachers of creative disciplines. I, for instance, banned the word "eternity" when I taught a poetry workshop. When she taught undergraduates, my mentor, Amy Hempel, banned the word "dorm." And a photography teacher I know has one rule for subject matter: "No children or pets."

Generally, I agree: Please, no more pictures of your cute kitty cat.

But when it comes to my 2-year-old niece Taya, I just can't help myself.