since 2014
I’ve photographed Chloe for more reasons than I could ever share.
We met for the first time in 2008, a few days before the new year. In the arms of their father, Donald, I just about demanded he let me hold them. He moved us to the couch, laughing to himself, “careful there”, passing a sleeping bundled Chloe to my arms. I remember feeling petulant at the presumption I didn’t understand how important Chloe was. How perfect and alien and holy they looked swaddled in my eight-year-old arms.
When I was young, I saw the paternal side of my family a few times a year, usually on Christmas and Fourth of July. Each time we gathered, Chloe, their sister Faith and I, ran around like puppies until we were forced to separate.
As we all grew older, Faith, a few years above me, became busy with school, and Chloe stopped needing the around-the-clock supervision an infant requires. In the summer of 2014, I asked their mother if I could help watch Chloe while she worked from home
This was the real birthplace of our friendship. Hours spent in the backyard on a swing, hands sticky from crafts and popsicles. Each afternoon we felt more like siblings. Conversation and play came easily, Chloe was a real person so much earlier than I remember being. Chloe was truly aware of the people around her, interested in all I was constantly surprised, constantly tickled, Chloe has always been funny.
Ten years later, watching Chloe grow up is the most rewarding thing I’ve ever been apart of.