Angie

Today, at St. Margaret’s House, we discussed one of my favorite quotes from Thomas Merton. 

“If you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I am living for, in detail, ask me what I think is keeping me from living fully for the thing I want to live for.”

We went around the table imagining that we used this quote to guide a solo exhibition and that they could use many photographs to fully express themselves and this quote.  Some wanted to talk about who they were and who they want to be.  Others talked about the concepts of pride and fear that are attached to the quote, as reasons that we are not fully living.  We imagined photos in color and black and white, expressing our passions and who we fight to be.

This photo is of Angie, the coordinator for St. Margaret’s House.  We took her portrait, along with the other women, because they demanded it and made her laugh for the photo and cheered her on because of how important she is to them.  Angie is an anchor.  She not only knows the name of every woman there, but she is invested in their story.  One of the women was told that she would be arrested if she took a photo on or of the bus.  Angie got this look on her face, and I knew she was going to go to bat over the issue.  But not just that one- all of them.  We feel so, so privileged to be inspired by beautiful women like her- women in the trenches, fighting for those they have been charged with to succeed.