Save The Last Dance For Me

This photograph of my daughter Elena has always been one of my favorites. It's sort of unusual because it's dark, side lit and low key, against an intense black background, all the attributes you don't expect in a photograph of a five year old dressed up as a ballerina. It's a relatively small print, with an image area of about 5.75x9.25 inches. One has been framed in my living room about forever, and I recently ran across several other prints of the image stashed away in a file folder for thirty years. I probably made up several at the time to give to the relatives.

At this point I don't even remember what the occasion was. She was taking dance lessons. Was there a recital? It was most likely shot with the Minolta Autocord using a single flash from a small umbrella reflector. The enlarging papers of that era were still rich in silver, and that print truely glows, it sings! The blacks are black and the details in the midtones and high lights sparkle.

This was around the time that her brother Jonathan was born. Looking back, I never took as many photographs of him as I did of Elena. Was it because she was my first born child? Perhaps because she was so outgoing and always eager to be photographed? Maybe because the marriage started falling apart. There's really no answer to that. There are some photographs, though, and I will be posting them.