I’m surveying the Level skate park with my camera in hand. I’m looking for potential takers in for the Here Among the Flower project but even though it’s a Sunday afternoon and it’s not actually raining, it is very wet and the Level is quiet. There are no takers but since this is my only day to be out with my camera I decide to look elsewhere.
I see the Eloise happily roller-skating around the area outside the skate park. She’s happily rolling around with that naive sense of balance that just about keeps her the right sight up but looks like it’s never more than a heartbeat away from a first aid kit. She finishes her lap and tiptoes back across the grass in her skates to where her mum and dad are relaxing on a bench. It’s a perfect picture of childhood and instinct screams that it would be a wonderful picture but the logical part of my brain kicks in and dismisses the idea. I would never photograph a child without permission – even though personally I don’t think that doing so is inherently wrong – but as Martin Parr said, ‘Who needs the aggro?’
I consider the possibility of approaching her parents to ask if they would be comfortable with a photograph but the memory of past experiences, of being openly accused with no more justification than being a man with a camera in a park (and therefore obviously a threat) take a good hold of my amygdala and start to throttle it.
In the end it is the parents who start to talk to me and so I make a decision to take the risk and broach the subject. There’s too much potential joy to miss and what harm can it do to ask. I adopt a very honest and open approach, acknowledging that what I am asking is potentially controversial and not meant to cause any offence. I admit to being nervous and thankfully I am able to convince them that I am not a threat. I am genuinely grateful for their trust and good will and feel that some sense of the spirit of human kindness is still alive.
There is a moment when introducing myself, her father introduces himself and before her mother has had a chance to make her own introduction, Eloise introduces her to me on her behalf.
“And this is Sarah” she says with all the charm and confidence of someone twice her age. It is a lovely moment and her maturity is so out of the expected character I catch myself and ask openly if Sarah is indeed her mother. Of course she is, but in that single moment Eloise establishes herself as her own person.
Perhaps the most telling aspect of Eloise’s parents’ good character is that they leave the decision up to Eloise. If she would like a photograph then she can make that decision and she readily agrees.
It takes a few minutes for Eloise to compose herself; she has the instinct to laugh either through excitement or embarrassment or more likely both and while that makes for great family photo’s, it’s not what I’m looking for. I want a composed moment of serenity, something that demonstrates the maturity and poise she showed a moment ago. I’m not sure I found it in this image but the experience is what counts and the restoration of faith in humanity and the opportunity to celebrate a joyful childhood moment counts far more to me and, I hope, to Eloise and her parents.