(Note: “The Housewives” was a term I fondly coined in 2006 after I started getting shoot requests from private, individual women who became my clients. Many of the women who contacted me were married and in their mid 30’s and were doing the shoots as gifts to their husbands. The folder in my archives is still called this and so I’ve stuck to it, in part just for the irony: most of these women are not “housewives” at all, but strong independent and forward thinking women who I have had the honour of documenting.
All are private commissions and the demographic has changed substantially over the years. Some I’m still in contact with, others I’ve totally lost contact with, some have become friends, some may wish not to have their real names used, others don’t mind, some may have their faces obscured for privacy reasons, others have generously shared their experiences of being photographed.)
I photographed gorgeous Nicky in her sister-in-laws spare bedroom one afternoon in early 2006.
The shoot was planned as her one year anniversary gift to her husband. Traditionally each year of marriage has a different symbol item or medium associated to it (Like gold, or wood, or tin etc) and the first is paper, so romantic!
The images were all shot Polaroid and put into an album for him after the shoot. I only have the cropped versions of the images which is what Ive added here. It was so lovely to shoot an entire project on Polaroid!
