The Antique Toy Ferris Wheel

For many years my daughter Elena was my favorite model. She was equally adept at both playing to the camera and acting like the camera didn't exist. She had a sixth sense for knowing exactly which clothes to pick out for a particular shoot, just how much make-up to wear so she didn't look made up, and she was adept at styling her own hair by age six or seven, a complete change from her early years when she'd take those little rounded nose childrens' scissors and cut off most all of her hair in a helter-skelter fashion because "it gets in the way". Years later she majored in drama at the University of Virginia and went on to study law at American University.

She'd turned eight in 1979 when this photograph was made. I remember that we needed to take pictures of a whole bunch of antique toys, but I don't remember if it was for Miami Magazine or a Christmas exhibit at one of the local malls. Back in that era I was doing photography for several Miami area malls from Kendall Town & Country and Dadeland in the south, and working north through Westland Mall, Omni International Mall, The Mall at 163rd Street, to Aventura Mall at the north end of the county. Actually, I don't think Aventura was open yet at that time and Omni might not have been either.