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.
When I first moved back to Arizona, I just wanted to make friends. I had recently gone through an ugly breakup and was uninterested in dating. Then I saw David across the room. My first thought was, "Yeah. I would date that boy."
About a month later he asked me out. I didn't even realize it was a date until about halfway through the evening. Once it dawned on me, though, I felt like an idiot...but an excited idiot because he was cute and I liked him and I was pretty sure he liked me too.
The next day was Halloween, and he called to invite me to a party his sister was hosting that night. Obviously I said I would come. I was nervous, since I'd already met his mom (he was living at home at the time) and would now be meeting his older sister and her husband. It seemed like a lot of pressure. But I liked him and was willing to feel awkward for a couple hours so I could spend an evening with him.
When he picked me up, he was driving a tiny old beat-up truck and listening to Blackstreet's "No Diggity." He made no move to change it either, which was totally fine with me because that song is fantastic. Not once did he apologize for his vehicle, his music choice, the fact that we'd be hanging out with his family on our second date...any of it. I had to laugh because it was so refreshing! He was comfortable with who he was, wasn't going to change in order to "impress" me, and apparently I could either take it or leave it.
I know it's ridiculous that that was the moment I knew I loved him, but it's true. There was something about his combination of confidence, humility, honesty, family commitment, and delightful quirkiness that completely won me over. I never looked back. We were married less than a year later.
He still really likes Halloween and 90's hip-hop/R&B. I still really like him.
Pentax 645 - 400TX+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.