Best viewed in ORIGINAL size.

I've had the idea for this still life in mind for some time but only worked with it today (Tuesday). The portrait of my mother was taken the day she and my father, James Selden Lay, Jr., married in Raleigh, North Carolina on February 27, 1937. They'd only known one another for six weeks--the only impulsive thing my Dad ever did!-- but their marriage was a happy one that lasted 50 years. The bugle is the one Mom always used to call us girls home for dinner, and the candle was made by my friend Pat Kolon for Mom's funeral after her death on November 2, 2002. I wanted my mother to be part of my "Falling Into Place" self portrait project, and now she is.

In addition to this photo, I've just added 18 new images to that series, bringing the current total up to 46. CLICK HERE to see my "Falling Into Place" gallery.

I continue to receive encouragement from Magnum photographer, David Alan Harvey, to work towards this project being published as a book. Yesterday he wrote: "...by January i would like to start with the layout and presentation to publishers with your book...if we start soonest, we should be able to have a book ready for spring of 2010..this means you would have to have all of your photography done by this coming summer 2009... there should never be a "rush to publish", but i think by then, with a little push and incentive, you can do it...what do you think???"

Of course I answered "Yes!"

This is promising to be a busy winter for me, photographically speaking. In addition to working on the book project, I'll be mounting a one-person exhibit of my African American Elders photos at a Detroit gallery in late March. I've also been invited to submit my work to the Hearst 8x10 Biennial Photography Competition. Mary Ellen Mark, who is one of ten judges for this international competition, kindly suggested to the organizers that I would be a "great candidate" and gave them my contact info. I feel like I've won already just to have such confidence placed in me by MEM. I'll be submitting 16 photos from my "Falling Into Place" series. The eight winners will have their work shown at two galleries in the Hearst Tower at 57th & 8th in NYC. If a miracle were to happen and my work was included, I'd be having two gallery openings within one week, one in Detroit on March 27 and the other in NYC on April 1. It's extremely unlikely but wouldn't that be amazing???

With all of this going on--and looking at what the economy is doing--I've decided to cancel my winter train trip to Southern California. Realistically speaking, just paying for the framing of my photos for the Detroit exhibit is going to be costly enough. This is no time to take on any extra expenses.