Welcome to the Love Project. I give someone 3 prompts to choose from (all relating to love), they answer the prompt, and I photograph them (with b&w film) while the answer. Come back every week for a new story of love.
I think most people wouldn't expect anything to come from a crush you have when you're 11 years old, but that was exactly how old I was when I met my husband. His family had moved into the neighborhood next to ours and started attending the same church that my family went to. The first time I saw him, I immediately fell in love! I can't explain what it was that drew me (this awkward preteen who was painfully shy) to him, but I was head over heels for this kid.
As we grew older we became friends who would occasionally hang out and go on bike rides together, but we were never more than friends. We went on a handful of dates as well, but never seriously dated each other. Both of us had other friends that we spent most of our time with and even dated other people, but my feelings for him remained. The worst part was that EVERYONE else (including our families) knew how I felt. We finally graduated high school and he left on a church mission for 2 years. We emailed back and forth weekly while he was away, but how I felt never came up because I knew nothing could come from that confession since we were in different countries.
After 2 years of not seeing each other, it was FINALLY time for him to come home. I awkwardly showed up at the airport with his family to welcome him home, and tried to stay out of the way. We talked for a little bit back at his parents house and made plans to get together. We saw each other every single day after that. We began dating and that shy little 11 year old girl's dreams finally came true! Once our feelings were finally out in the open, we realized that we had felt the same way for each other all this time but had just both been too shy to admit it. Something kept drawing us together all those years, and I just knew somehow it would work out. Now married for almost 7 years, he is still my first and only love.
Pentax 645 - Illford hp5+1 - Find Lab
If you would like to participate in this project, and I really hope you do, then email me at photographyhill@gmail.com to set something up.