A Photo Collaboration with Frances Anne Browning Clark.

I had just gotten a new set of Flashpoint studio lights and soft boxes and wanted to test them out and experiment with them before using them in the field or for THE NURSERY. That’s how this whole shoot originally started.

After rehab, I would get in melancholy moods where all I could think about was making the most out of what little time I had left on this earth (I know, very dramatic!) and so I figured, since I needed to practice building these lights, I might as well shoot portraits of my parents before they moved on to the great hereafter.

Now that they are older, I find that they are less and less excited to have their photos taken, but I told them I was dying, and so they eventually agreed.

“What do you mean you’re dying?”

I knew they’d get stuck on that.

“Yes. We all are, Mom, life is precious. Besides, when you said yes, I already rented the costumes.”

That wasn’t exactly true, I had found some costumes online. Or rather, some pictures of some costumes. Actually, they were paintings of people from the Victorian era, wearing outfits that for them would have just been called clothing, not costumes, but for us, in today’s time they would be considered costumes. Basically, I had found some ideas, okay? Elaborate ideas that if translated into costumes would likely be expensive, and if I played my cards right at the rental shop, nonrefundable.

More so even than me dying, my parents are terrified of wasting money, so this zero return policy is what sealed the deal, I’m pretty sure.

Now, I just had to find me some nonrefundable costume rentals. And this is where things went off the rails.

Not just because there were so many swoon-worthy and idea-inspiring wardrobe options down at my favorite local costume shoppe, but because somehow the wonderfully flamboyant man who works there convinced me to start trying on costumes myself.

I have a weak spot for Victorian menswear, and by the time I left that costume shop, it was about 90% certain that this little light-testing project had suddenly turned into a full-blown family portrait photoshoot.

About a week or two later, I found a location that was absolute perfection for what I had in mind, and it was available to rent in two-night increments. I then asked my partner Seth if he’d be willing to join in me in a Victorian style family portrait, and when he agreed, the likelihood of me being in front of (rather than behind) the camera for this particular photoshoot officially increased to 100%.

I knew my mom was going to hate the black, matronly, dress I had in mind for her, so I called the costume shoppe. I asked the man if when my mom came in for her fitting, he would somehow find a way to talk her into wearing the black dress, and he said he'd try his best. I might have also told him I was slowly dying of mortality and that this photoshoot was my last dying wish.

I then contacted my friend, the very talented photographer Frances Anne Browning Clark (aka, Annie) and told her about my idea for a stilted, Vanity Fair-style shoot, but with period costumes, and she understood immediately what I was going for. She agreed to help, and I booked the location.

I love these photos, and my only regret is that now— if Seth and I ever get married— I feel like I have to somehow top this.

But who can say if we’ll even live long enough to find out.

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Please remember to include all of these in my FUNERAL SLIDESHOW!