It's a wrap! almost. Let's party!

I was a little nervous going to the wrap party. I didn't know what to expect, whether or not I was going to be under dressed. My first night in puerto rico i had gone to a party dressed in a t-shirt and jeans and turned up completely under dressed, and I didn't want to repeat that experience.

Rafi had said he wanted people to wear white. It wasn't a dress code, but I wanted to comply with it any way. I liked the idea that the crew would be dressed in the color of purity, after a collective exorcism. When I got there, everybody was dressed so beautifully. It seemed a little bit like a cult, and when I mentioned it, Rafi was like "yes! The cult of MIENTE!" It could definitely be a cult. There's a brotherhood, we're a family, it's a little incestuous, very spiritual in a new wavey style, and there's a definite hierarchy. I think we could definitely qualify as a cult.

It was funny to see everybody dressed up, not in their work clothes. some people set themselves apart from work by dressing nicely, and some people incorporated their work clothes into white-wear. The funny thing is that since it was such short notice that we should wear white, not everybody could comply. But the ladies who didn't wear white wore blue (like Paola) and the men who didn't wear white wore brown (like Henry.) We mingled, drank, ate, and were merry until the early hours.

Earlier that day I had put my pictures on a cd at the request of my aunt, and now they were going to be projected for everybody to see. I handed the cd over, and while it was being prepared into a slide show, I became very very nervous. All of a sudden I felt like I was exposing myself to the crew, showing them what I do behind my lens when I go into my dark little corner and stop interacting with people. The camera had been to me like what sunglasses are to Elton John. A strange coping mechanism and an inanimate object turned friend that helps you get through awkward, scary, boring times. Having a camera is like dancing around in your underwear late at night, when nobody is watching. Looking at people through a lens is an extremely intimate yet simultaneously voyeuristic moment. Its kind of my secret:

I'm looking at you.

Now it was being projected to all the people that I had been watching for this past month, to all the people I had briefly fallen in love with while looking at them through my lens. I didn't even have to do anything, though. I didn't have to prepare, warm up, breathe, drink water, go to the bathroom, jog, stretch... I just had to hand over the cd. My work was already done, every night at the end of the day when I would edit the pictures and decide which ones I liked.

I was excited, too, though. Laura and sonnel were there, as well as a bunch of other photographers and artists. What a perfect opportunity to get criticized or propped. The reception was really encouraging. People Aww'd and Wow'd in intended places, and some came up to me and were like "I always saw you taking pictures, but I had no idea that they were good!" and most of all, Laura Magrudel, the still photographer for Miente, told me I had a good eye and that meant a lot to me.