A neighbor photographs my wife dancing

Posted on November 3, 2015 by

My wife, like many in South America, grew up dancing – everything from salsa and cumbia to dance variants from a certain gringo continent to the north.

When she was a little girl, she began dancing the twist at a party and made such an impression that adults gathered in a circle around her to dance with her and cheer her on.

So I thought of her when my neighbor Sharon Murphree recently asked for dancers as photo subjects.

Hi Neighbors! Some of you may know this, but I am working toward my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Minneapolis College of Art and Design, majoring in sculpture and photography. My final project in photography is a month long study on a body of work that is idea driven. I decided that I would do an exploration of the human body and motion and light. I am starting out with dance to capture this motion. My question: Do you or any of your children dance ( Ballet, tap, Interpretive, anything) and if so, would you be interested in allowing me to set up a session? Depending on the type of dance, this may be shot in a studio or on location. I can offer an exhibition quality print for helping me out.

I nudged my wife into volunteering to spend some time in Sharon’s studio, and I’m glad I did. Sharon shot some lovely photos (and these are just the digital test shots, the real ones were taken with her big film camera):

I uploaded several dozen of Sharon’s images to Google Photos, which generated a handful of animated GIFs:

These photos move me.

My wife is beyond beautiful to me, and I cherish photographic imagery of her since it tends to have a powerful effect on me – I fall in love all over again.

This is one reason I wanted her to dance for Sharon’s camera all by herself, and not with me. I’m not as good a dancer (I’m surprised my Puerto Rican card hasn’t been confiscated) and don’t make as good a photo subject.

Don’t take my word for it. At a neighborhood music festival last September, Sharon spotted my wife and me dancing salsa and aimed her big glass in our direction.