I first met Chelsea at the bike prom on friday- she seemed interesting in a “you’re a person with interesting ideas” kind of way, then she showed up here in the city for Made You Look and the afterparty, and turns out we’re into a lot of the same things, photography and journalism and documentary work, and we’re getting along famously at the party when she asks to see my camera, and I hand it over (this is after several stout rum and cokes, mind), and she runs off taking pictures like there’s no tomorrow. And I don’t know, something about the way I can see she’s concentrating, I let her keep going with it for a while.

I’m really glad I did because she’s really good. Focus is on the money, compositionally interesting, good moments, the whole bit. I asked her later, after seeing the pictures, if she had any experience. “I just shoot everything I love. Always have,” she tells me. And that’s exactly it folks, what I’ve been saying for years: shoot what you love, the rest is just technicalities.

Posted by Matt on 2009-08-26T00:00:00Z GMT