This photograph of me was taken by Annie Liebovitz for a photo book celebrating women’s empowerment. I was selected because the team were excited about the work we are doing at Surface Workshop. They had never heard of sustainable furniture and were intrigued to learn more about it.
I flew up to New York City for the photo shoot where I had my hair done by the famous stylist Sally Hershberger and makeup by Elaine Madelon. Ms. Liebovitz came into the dressing room to meet me and take a look at me in person. She remarked about how cute I was dressed and loved my style. She pulled a similar colored sweater and some jeans for me to wear at the shoot and I kept the lace up green canvas sneakers I was wearing.
I stepped into the photo studio which had a big curling ramp on which a small beat up black platform was set up, with a weathered backdrop hanging behind me. An enormous fan was set up in front of me (see image below) and someone on the set asked me if it bothered me. I told them no, I am used to having big fans on (we do not have air conditioning at our woodshop!). They put the Pandora music station of my choice on and the shoot began.
Ms. Liebovitz made a little bit of small talk but then quickly went into a zone. She was very focused on taking pictures and would only speak to ask me to do something different with my hands or to have one of her team do something. At one point my socks came off, per her request, and I had to reassure her stylist that I could and should take my socks off by myself.
She had one person on the set whose job it was to talk to me during the shoot. The purpose of this was to put me at ease, and looking at the photograph above- I think it worked. The time went by very quickly. Before I knew it, Ms. Liebovitz said “Ok, we got it.”
She gave me two of her signed books and a big, warm hug.
The experience is something I will cherish forever. It was cool to get this very special reward just for doing what we are passionate about here at Surface Workshop.
