Mosquito Bites | Watching The Photo Reels Go Round And Round…

I Know My Right Eye is Swollen, Mama, But Please Do Not Interrupt My Elmo Time! Polly Nance. Digital photograph. 10 x 8 inches.

Lennon, I suppose, ultimately won her battle against a mosquito at daycare on Friday; but it wasn’t pretty! These photographs are representative of one of those motherly moments I am compelled to photograph… I love these moments because, not only it is a part of my job, but I also get to witness my daughter… in all her true colors. Another Sally Mann moment I was having. I just completely get her and her photography/ photographs, and so, I love capturing these moments. I was capturing them before I even knew who Mann was. Love her work. Now, this little girl, Lennon, of mine doesn’t let anything get her down… not even being born 6 weeks early… she out-ate every baby in the NICU. She’s a trooper and has a great, whacky personality with a BIG heart… especially at this present toddler state of existence she thrives in. Lennon is eager to learn and dance and laugh… and nothing gets her down. And if anything gets her down, it only last ten minutes and then she’s back to being her brave self all over again. She is such a fun, spunky child; a child lets me know exactly what she is thinking at all times. These are some photographs I took of her, after my husband walked inside one night, and I saw her EYE!!! I couldn’t get her to sit still enough the first night after the incident… so only one of these photographs is from that exact moment I fist saw her. But the others are from the very next day, while she was watching Sesame Street in her Elmo t-shirt next to her “Tickle-Me” Elmo. She’s growing up on me. Her teacher at daycare told my husband that she saw a mosquito on Lennon, but it was too late and it had already got her good. HAHA!! This is the second time in her life so far that she has had her eye swell up like she’s been soccer-punched… the first was a bad case of pinkeye. I guess I’d like to call these portraits of Lennon, but I use the term loosely because they are not perfect, pretty pictures. They are pretty pictures with swollen eyes. These photographs just make me smile. She’s hilarious and is always cracking me up. So, naturally, Lennon with a half-open swollen eye still giggling and laughing and pitching fits, was quite humorous to me. I had to document. 🙂 And I believe these photographs bring out the true colors she was expressing throughout my whole, spontaneous photo-shoot of her. It was a roller-coaster ride of emotions… in about a five minutes… How dare I interrupt her Elmo viewing!

The Night After Battle. Polly Nance. Digital photograph. 10 x 8 inches.