Posted by Mr. Robot | March 11th, 2020 | No responses
Albuquerque, New Mexico. I always have to run spell check on the city name. Speaking of running spell check, Aliece Die Grammer, (who probably spells it Grammar) was 9 months pregnant during this shoot. Given the fact that she could have went into labor at any time during this shoot I needed to pack light. Soooooo it is time for …
We traveled about an hour away from ABQ to the Pueblo of Jemez. This whole time I was calling this sacred place Pueblo of James, because that is what Aliece had me believe it was called. To my surprise that couldn’t be further from the truth. Further than that? The nearest hospital. We were probably out of cellular signal too. It was risky, but here is where she wanted to take photos in the pueblo, wearing her Indian outfit, and no James anywhere in sight.
What awaited us in this place was a pathway to rocks formations and a theatre filled with benches. I won’t go into the details of the history on this place. It isn’t that I dont think it is all that interesting, on the contrary, it is very interesting, but the place has placards you can read while you’re there. So go wiki it, or better yet, go and visit.
Admission is like 5 bucks or so, photography is obviously allowed, and we had the whole place to ourselves. Old places like this command a certain respect. You dont want to be a loud and obnoxious asshole screaming and laughing, but Aliece didn’t want to listen to reason.
I shot photos of Aliece way back in 2007 when she needed photos for some reason (I’m thinking it was craigslist, but I can’t remember right now), but even years later she was still able to take direction despite being so nervous.
Is there a fetish that exists out there where people have a thing for pregnant women? If so, then man have you guys hit the jackpot here. Aliece is sporting that Indian dress that was passed down from her grandmother. I don’t know, maybe I am making this shit up, but I could have swore her grandmother owned this dress and gave it to her daughter, to which in turn the daughter (Aliece’s mom) said, “I dont want this!” and gave it to Aliece. This very day, she treasures it and wears it with pride.
Now I could be wrong again, but maybe Aliece is part Native American. I am guessing at the low percentage. But what Aliece can’t prove in her ethnicity, she makes up with her artistic talent and good humor. She paints. When I visited Aliece in ABQ, I met her lovely daughter and her cool husband. The whole house was an art filled dream with each of her paintings mounted on the wall like some sort of Sistine Chapel of madness and chaos. Aren’t those somewhat the same thing? Regardless, her talent was right there for everyone to see.
You see if you take a gander at Aliece in all of her 9 month parasitic glory, you can tell that she herself is a work of art. A living Mona Lisa that walks, talks, eats, and probably shits (do girls poop?).
She has been through trials and tribulations and despite all of that, she has come out on top swinging from her days in Houston and now conquering the great city of Albeerequqe (spell check?)..ABQ.
Let’s discuss lighting. My main light was a Profoto B10 with the OCF Octobox with grid. Additional lights were Profoto A1Xs to fill in some of those dark areas within the Pueblo walls. There was no getting around this pregnancy. Being pregnant does some crazy shit to a woman’s figure. Before I make it on some hit list by pregnant women world wide, let me just say what I mean. Having a baby tends to pack on additional weight. I personally like capturing the extra weight. I have seen photographers spend lots of time lighting pregnant women to make them look thinner. Wtf? I mean I understand why this is. Do whatever you want to do, if that is your vision, but in this circumstance, I wanted to show off that bit o’ prego. I did want to create that butterfly lighting to her face in some of the shots as it brought out that Aliece of the old days.
There was overcast, it was dusty, and Aliece complaining about how pregnant she was rushed this session to an end. Afterwards, we celebrated by smoking a couple of cigarettes, and then I spit mine out and asked “How could you smoke these things?!”
Ps. For those who are wondering (I’m talking to you fetish people)…she had a girl.
Hello friend.
