Sarah 5 March 2023

Age has been a stigma for a long time. In Latin American countries we have a deprecative term for a woman in her 40s. We call her a cuarentona. While one could use the term cincuentona for a woman in her 50s the expression is hardly used.

In our neck of the woods we have an equivalent expression we write or tell women of a certain age, "You still look good."

When I was about to be 40 I told my Rosemary that I was going to get an asymmetrical haircut. She warned me, “Remember you are about to be 40.”

My new friend Sarah (she of the luminous skin) is about to be 40 and wanted me to take her photograph. I suggested that we use the theme of becoming 40 in our photo session.

There is nothing worse than the photographer that insists one doing stuff only in his way. Luckily in my years I have learned to listen. She posed in my piano room on the red psychiatric couch. We took some pictures with the piano.  She plays  the piano. At one point she leaned on the top of the piano and suggested I take a photograph. There are other lovely photographs of her but I will start this blog with that unlit shot taken with my Fuji X-E3. Somehow it conveys the state of her being as she prepares to be a cuarentona.

Many of the portraits I took of her involve an on-purpose-severe-under-exposure with that Fuji. I discovered this a few years ago and I now use it as part of my multi techniques. The last photograph  one here is an example.