My Mom (and you) Now Knows...

...that I photograph Sadomasochists in DC.

The Washington Post interviewed Aimee Anthony and me about working with Annie Liebovich and ended up writing a little about us:
ARTICLE
* excerpt: "Williams became fascinated by subcultures and people with lives on the fringes. She did long documentary projects about a cult in rural Virginia and vagabonds in Denmark, and she photographed sadomasochists in Northeast Washington. She learned to keep her eyes open, take risks, be more accepting."

I called my mom to see if she got her copy and what she thought.  Her response: "Yes - you photograph sadomasochists??"  And then came the dead, face down in an alleyway speech.  Funny thing is, I was in an alley, getting ready to photograph Fight Club DC, when someone asked me if I wanted to go into a building that had a red glow coming from the windows (ok, maybe mom has a point...). The person who invited me was an N.G. photographer and old friend.  He knew what was happening inside and that he couldn't even get in the door without a girl.  He ended up not shooting much - this was one situation where being a female photographer made all the difference.
  The 'be more accepting' part of the article was a bit out of context of what I actually said.  See, I used to be paralyzingly shy (which is funny, since I come from a giant family).  I've always been interested in photographing different cultures, sub-cultures, but really didn't take the photos I wanted until I understood the importance of being open and vulnerable to what you're shooting.  If you want to communicate an effective story and have your subject be open and honest in front of your lens, you will gain little from being the fly on the wall.  It wasn't easy photographing sadomasochists the first time - it's a strange, intimidating world for an admittedly naive country-girl from Georgia.  Before we went in, I may have eyed the pepper spray on my keychain once or twice.  As it turns out, everyone there was quite friendly & nice.  One leather-clad woman gave me a card, so I could email photos - it was her real estate business card with a photo of her with perfectly coiffed hair in a grey business suit.