So a little over a month ago I got a call from Tracie at Helzberg Diamonds in Kansas City and I admit that I had a moment of ‘good heavens, why are they calling me?’ What she called with was an incredible invitation. They were promoting a new line of angels and needed a photographer for the portraits of the artist. Oh my goodness what an artist! Tracie and her assistant, Katie, flew in and Shannon (one of the incredible people who assists me) and I trucked down to meet them and Susan Helmich Anderson in Monument at her studio…
Susan is… a gift, an artist, a brave soul, a caring heart, a storyteller, a mother, a teacher… so many things. I truly do not have enough words to describe the gift that the day with her was to all of us. Her hands moved like magic and she laughed and she loves Sting and she told story after story of her amazing path. As I watched her hands work in ways that were as comfortable as breathing to her, I couldn’t help but think about the things we do as photographers and the spectacular moments in peoples lives that we are invited into. Documenting an artist at work was… thrilling. Truly.
As the shoot continued in the afternoon, Susan was kind enough to hand everyone a bit of wax, her originals use the lost wax method, and invite us to play. Her open heart made it seem like the most common thing in the world that we would sculpt too. While we giggled, she wove magic creating a possible new piece for the collection right before our eyes… just a part of expressing her soul and her stories.
When the Helzberg brochures arrived today I was excited beyond measure to see what the wizzes in the marketing department had made of the photos. I just love what they did and the photos look great. But the truth of the matter is that Susan is the magic, I just got invited to try to capture it…
A few pages from the brochure…
And a few more from the shoot…
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