A few weeks ago I was thumbing through my socials when some amber-lit images stopped my scroll.
The pictures were of a high school classmatemagic-hour shots in a mountainside field.
Beneath them she had written: I decided the end of my 30s warranted some graduation photos.
Get this woman out from behind the camera.
What struck me most about the photos was not how beautiful my friend looked.
It was that she was alone.
No kids, no partner, no family.
Wesselss solo-photos post went instantly viral within her networkthe likes andwhat a great ideaspoured in.
Shes taking the photo or missing from the photo or hovering at its edges.
An insurmountable Everest climb of self-confidence?
Wessels hatched the idea for her session over the course of an evening.
She had been through an actual chapter, and wanted to mark its close.
Lisa loved the idea, but Wessels found herself backtracking after the date was set.
She asked Lisa if she could switch to a family photo session, but Lisa pushed back.
My heart sank when I got Jenns message asking to switch to a family session, the photographer says.
I empathized with her.
I could sense the fear of focusing on herself.
It had its awkward moments, Wessels says.
Im not a super-outgoing person.
But there were also moments where I felt really present and beautiful.
And then of course when I got the photos back my first instinct was to rip myself apart.
I was nodding when Wessels said this to me; I bet youre nodding reading it.
I wipe everyones faces while they yell, and then, all at once, its time togo.
I never got to put my makeup on.
I have made clear, with my choices, who matters in this tableau.
And so it follows, how often I find myself sayingIll take itrather thancheese.
As for solo pictures: Im an elder millennial.
And if the moment passes us by?
I for one let it, while focusing all snapping and album-ing energies on children.
So why are we so committed to our places out of frame?
But it does feel like the rise of the selfie killed the formal solo portrait.
It allows you to circumvent this formal, expensive, ritualistic way of doing things.
Clearly, many who viewed Wesselss photos online felt similarly.
I think I had a glass of wine before I posted them, she says.
But I was surprised by the reaction.
If I did this 20 years ago, Id have felt so awkward.
But now I think: I did all these things to save my life.
I want some documentation of it.
Spoken like a true graduate.
