News. Blog.

I must admit, I was hesitant about starting to blog. For the most part, I stay in my own head, especially when it comes to my work. I will work on various assignments; the images will go to the client, the magazine, …, and then, unless they make it onto the final edit of my website or portfolio, they live in my hard-drive, no one sees them. But today, I embrace the venue that blogging has provided for me, I can now share photographs of other experiences I have had.

This past summer, Afsheen and Rashid got married. I was delighted when Afsheen asked me to photograph her Mehendi (a pre-wedding henna ceremony). This is the first time I was exposed to some of their traditions; the bride and (typically) all of the women present get henna applied to their hands, and the bride not only gets henna on her hands and forearms, she also gets henna applied on her legs. Tradition says the darker the henna design on the skin, the more love the husband will have for his wife … so the henna stays on for as long as possible, then once rinsed off, the stained skin should last for a min. of 1 week. Dolly (the henna artist) did a beautiful job for this Mehendi ceremony.

the henna application took approx. 4 hours

Afsheen and her adorned arms