Your Eyes!

He said, "I want to showcase your eyes!  Your eyes!" I told him that would be fine and set up a meeting time.  I wasn't sure what he had in mind when he texted me to bring a sewing kit with black thread and also bring a belly dancing belt he knew that I possessed.  Belt?  For an Eye Showcase?  Ok, strange, but ok. 

I had a number of stops to make on the way to see him.  I rode the train in and the coins and bells kept jingling in my purse.  I wondered if my neighbors on the train could hear them, certainly they could but did they just think it a new train noise or did they wonder about the seemingly innocent woman who sat near, bundled against the weather and clutching a leopard print bag.

I had lunch with a friend.  Reaching in for my wallet set off the musical notes.  He did not ask.  He simply smiled and knew that sometime he would see the photographic result of the jingling.

I stopped at the hair dresser and exchanged business cards while setting an appointment.  She kept her composure and went about entering the data into their system.

A man stopped me requesting fifty cents as I stepped off the train.  The jingling was loud and I smiled in joy to the music as I dug out a dollar, happy that I had some to spare.

I arrive at the studio and the photographer sits me down in a spare room and shows me what needed sewn.  It was an Arabic style head piece. The head piece was a band that went around the head and was connected with thread to a rectangular piece of material that would hide the nose and mouth. It was very severe.  Now the belt made more sense.  He wanted me to wear the head piece and add the belt for a bit more interest.  We tried tying everything a number of different ways.  He would shoot and I would flash my eyes.  We would stop.  I would rearrange.  He would shoot again.  The best of the resulting images definitely showcase my eyes.  In one photo I look seductive, another I look strong and worn, and the third, I look truly exotic. 

The shoot was fun.  They always are.