There Is A Willow Grows Aslant A Brook

In 1987 I flew to Mexico City. A friend asked me,” How would you like to photograph the actress María Anna Guzmán who plays Ophelia in a production of Hamlet in Spanish at the University of Mexico?” I rapidly responded, “Yes,”while feeling frustrated that I had only small cameras and no lights so I would have to make do with what I had. Luckily the lights backstage at the UNAM theatre were adequate for my super fast Kodak 5054 TMZ ISO 3200 film.

There is a willow grows aslant a brook
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream.
There with fantastic garlands did she come
Of crowflowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples,
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold maids do “dead men’s fingers” call them.
There, on the pendant boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke,

When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide;
And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up:
Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes;
As one incapable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and indued
Unto that element: but long it could not be
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.

Hamlet - William Shakespeare