I Shutter When I See You: A Place of Love

 

“Dear Wonderful Person,

Please take care of this succulent, it came from a place of love and fond memories. I hope you can enjoy this plant as much as I have.

– Previous Owner ♥”

On the corner of Haight St and Clayton St.

I was buried in my phone, as usual, checking to see how long it would be until my bus arrived. I saw her out of the corner of my eye. I would not have seen anything if she had not done a double-step and jerked back to the corner, instead of passing me entirely. She placed this package of life on the uneven pavement, letting it be perfectly offset by the natural art behind it, and took a couple steps around the corner. She had my full attention now, though I tried to be discreet. I watched as she stared at the plant for a couple seconds. It looked like she was willing herself to move away from this little piece of her heart, instead of grabbing it and placing it somewhere else or taking it home with her again. I guess she decided she had made the right decision as she turned slowly and headed out of my view, her black, high-waisted skirt swishing behind her, Doc Martens treading the pavement.

I Shutter When I See You: Female Roosevelt

“…when children are 7 years old, boys and girls say they want to become president in roughly the same numbers. By the time they’re 15, however, the number of girls who say they would like to be president drops off dramatically as compared to the boys.” Stop Selling Sexism to our Daughters

Inspired by a man named Roosevelt

“Men are almost 60% more likely than women to view themselves as ‘very qualified’ to run for office. Women are more than twice as likely as men to rate themselves as ‘not at all qualified’. … This is the same pattern we uncovered in college students.” Girls Just Wanna Not Run

“If people knew that Cuba, China, Iraq and Afghanistan have more women in government than the United States of America, that would get some people upset.” – Gavin Newsom

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A portrait of a stranger, coming soon!

Photograph and words by Miranda Hollingswood

I Shutter When I See You: Roosevelt

“My name’s Roosevelt, like the President. You’ll remember.”

On West Portal, in the Walgreens parking lot

I get more love and acceptance from the people in “bad” circumstances than the people in “good” circumstances. Now what does that say about the world?

Interpret as you will.

A self-portrait inspired by this stranger, coming soon!

Portrait and words by Miranda Hollingswood

I Shutter When I See You: Puppy Love

I never thought I’d love this pile of bouncing fur

Inspired by a woman and her dog, resting in a Taiwan park

My family adopted our dog suddenly without too much hesitation. That sort of thing happens when your older sister works at a veterinarian office. A medium-sized s(paniel/ p)oodle with the energy of a thousand pups, he inserted himself into our lives, with his tendency to fail at sitting and his howls which pierced our ears each time we put him in the car.

A pet can bring its owner unbounded love, more beautiful than anything else. This type of love is so important because humans have stayed so far from our grounded, earthy roots. We still need animals around to keep us young and remind us that life can be boiled down to the simplest of needs: food, exercise, warmth, and hugs.

P.S. Spy the hair color change?

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A portrait of a stranger, coming soon!

Portrait and words by Miranda Hollingswood

I Shutter When I See You: Foreign field, Familiar folk

*Shows me that her identical dogs can walk on their hind legs*

in Cíhújìniàndiāosù Park, near the Dasi township in Taiwan.

I discovered that pointing at a camera and raising your eyebrows can catapult you over the language barrier. I was often on the receiving end of those gestures in my nine day trip to Taiwan (with a group from my school). Blonde and white is interesting to these people because it is foreign and unknown. I guess everyone likes photographing people that catch their eye. But that’s enough of that, let’s get to my subject!

As I ate lunch with my friends and enjoyed the scenery, this woman looked at us silently. I always relate to the observer: the one that sits quietly and drinks in their surroundings may know more than the person that just does-does-does. I’m sure I say that because I am an observer myself. My camera always at my side.

She had a youthful quality to her and was willing to let me have some much-missed puppy-love from her dogs, without a single word understood between us. This experience definitely mirrors my experience of the country’s people, whether in the city of Taipei, or the country. Every single person I met was more welcoming, giving, and happy than any Americans I have ever met. We are often so wary of “the stranger” in America. After my trip, I have been wanting to find another word for my portraits of humans: all of us are less strange, less foreign than we might assume. Spread the love, hug someone’s dog today.

If you would like to know anything specific about my trip to Taiwan or this portrait, head right down to the comments and throw your questions my way. You can see other photos from my trip on my personal Instagram: wise_it_so, and my 365 Instagram: mh365

A self-portrait inspired by this stranger, coming soon!!

Portrait and words by Miranda Hollingswood

I Shutter When I See You: Bird in the Rain // Wet Feet

I don’t care much for the comfort of a feather-free sidewalk

Inspired by a mother and child intent on pigeon activity.

A simple prop makes for an evening of adventure. I waited for about a week to take this self-portrait; after my mother helped me purchase black feathers, all I needed to do was wait for a calm night with heavy rain.
The feathers came to my mind first. The feet of the child were what made me strip my shoes and the grime of pigeons sent me into the street. Then I worked with the prop until I found something compelling. There is a freedom equated to birds and flight which I wanted to capture. I did not want these photos to be “perfect” so I used a grimy flash and chose to publish the photo with an unexpected element: a time-lapse light trail from a passing car. Here’s how I ended the shoot:

Thank you for reading! I am very excited about my next pair of posts: keep your eyes on the lookout!

Photography and words by Miranda Hollingswood

I Shutter When I See You: Birds

“Look at the birds!”
Infront of Shaw’s (Candy, Ice Cream, Gifts) on West Portal Avenue in West Portal

Look at those little toesies!
The woman in this photo was very reluctant to have me photograph her but agreed to as long as she could hide her face. Of course her child followed suite. It might have only been because of the flutter of pigeons behind him, but I still love how this little family mirror each other. I also love the way a large amount of these two figures is hidden, either by with a veil of shadow or hair.

A self portrait inspired by these strangers is coming soon!

Photography and words by Miranda Hollingswood

I Shutter When I See You: Mute Stare

Split soul

Inspired by an activist in a yellow and red beanie.

A meeting can tell you a lot about a person. My meeting with this man brought me contrast. He jumped swiftly between his business and his personal life; back and forth. His seemingly homemade beanie was the color of the blood and violence his mime troupe cast him in and the happy yellow that I saw in him.

This self-portrait was difficult to complete as I saw so many different things when I thought about the image I had captured and the words he had said to me. So, in order to try to capture that, I found a split shadow and kept the literal aspects I kept seeing: the door behind him and the beanie.

Photography and words by Miranda Hollingswood

I Shutter When I See You: Political “Mime”

“I had my acting debut with the San Francisco Mime Troupe. They dressed me up as a cop and I gave the final blow that killed the main character. There were thousands of people in Delores Park and you could hear a pin drop.”

In front of the Glen Park Branch of the San Francisco Public Library

You know those “beach bums?” Those people who live as close as possible to Ocean Beach and spend their every waking, non-working moment in the waves? The best way I can describe this man is as an activism-bum. I say that in the most respectful way. He was so enthusiastic about what he was doing and he clearly knew everything he was talking about forward and backward. As he was working for Greenpeace when I shot him, our conversation was primarily about the fishing crisis but led naturally to his work with the San Francisco Mime Troupe (America’s Theater of Political Comedy). He was truly passionate and had some great stories to tell and information to give.

A self-portrait inspired by this stranger coming soon!

Portrait and words by Miranda Hollingswood