Photography and Multimedia by photographer Suzanne Tennant
I had the privilege of shooting some hard working high school students at Safeco Field for an organization called JUMA the other day. Next time you are at a Seattle Mariners game make sure you buy your coffee, cookies, churros, corn dogs and other treats from them and help a deserving student go to college.
A couple of weeks ago while the International Olympic Committee decided to drop the sport, I was shooting the Washington State Wrestling Tournament at the Tacoma Dome. After orienting myself in a very chaotic environment of screaming, multiple matches and refs whistles, I walked by one of the center mats and everything suddenly seemed to be in slow motion. I saw this muscular, very tough wrestler crying and joyfully hugging a coach. Then, I saw huge tendrils of curly red hair spill out from the wrestler’s cap as she removed it. I looked around and there were hundreds of girls preparing to wrestle in the state meet.
I stood with my mouth open and looked around. I was sent to shoot one girl (which I thought was unusual), but I had no idea so many in this state participate in the sport. When I ran cross country in high school I remember my mother telling me how girls who played any sport in the 1950’s were seen as “strange” or “outcasts” and I couldn’t believe it. There with my mouth hanging open, I felt like I was the one from the 1950’s. Why would I be surprised by this? I was sent to many wrestling meets in Illinois and I don’t remember seeing one girl. It turns out that Washington is only one of 5 states that has its own tournament for girls. And it’s no fringe sport, it’s growing every year.
Wrestling has always been one of my least favorite sports to shoot. But the next day, I drove back to the Tacoma Dome to focus on the girls. All of a sudden wrestling was a whole new thing to me. These girls were beyond passionate about their sport and even though they fought like warriors, they weren’t afraid to cry like babies – win or lose. They brought a certain elegance and emotion to wrestling that I’ve never seen. I think this article by Bob Cook of Forbes may be right. Girls may just be the ones to save the day for wrestling. But I’m not surprised by that now.
When someone paints the sky, you don’t drive by. (Between Westport, WA and Aberdeen, WA)
Fellow Seattle -ite and awesome photographer Michael Hanson recently gave me a talking to about the importance of light. “Suzanne, remember light, light, light” Uh, and he is right. We mainly talked about it in the context of outdoor photography and the magic hours of the early morning or evening. I didn’t think I would find it in a high school gym last Tuesday.
High schools are notorious for having horrible light, but Evergreen High School came through at one of their wrestling matches. While looking at the photos I couldn’t help but think of friend and other awesome photographer Rob Hart. Rob taught me how to see this kind of light even in the most mundane assignments. So in the middle of winter I want to thank Michael, Rob, and Evergreen High School for a little much – needed light.
I spotted the Mike Royko book “One More Time” on my parent’s bookshelf when I was packing up to leave after Christmas. I always loved his columns and it felt like a way to bring a little Chicago back to Seattle. While reading the Introduction on the plane home, the book referred to a passage in Nelson Algren’s “City on the Make”.
“Once you’ve become a part of this particular patch, you’ll never love another. Like loving a woman with a broken nose, you may well find lovelier lovelies, but never a lovely so real.”
It summed up my feelings of this great city after being gone from it for a year (the longest I have ever been away). Just two weeks earlier I watched Orca whales pass by my home, found a Snowy Owl perched in a tree outside my door, and hiked through some of the most beautiful country I have ever seen. I love Seattle, but she is the lovelier lovely.
While I was in Chicago I took just about every train and bus to get to family and friends. I missed the grit, the cold, and the friendly, outspoken characters you can only meet on the CTA or in a Chicago watering hole. In one bar I complimented a guy on his hat with a Chicago flag on it and he handed it over to me when I came back from the restroom. A toothless man with a Jamaican hat struck up a conversation with me on the bus and by the end made me feel so good about life that I was able to drag my suitcase in the snow for 3 blocks without complaining. I even missed the “rougher”, less exotic birds of Chicago as I watched my friend Tamara and her son feed the pigeons and grackles outside of her Humbolt Park Home.
It seems fit that the final part of my trip was in Algren’s old stomping ground in the Polish Neighborhoods on North Milwaukee Avenue. I had the privilege of photographing 4 generations of my friend’s family from Poland. My last image is of her daughter Madeleine smiling at her 89 year old great grandmother “Babka”.
How fortunate I am to have a second home so real.
Shooting this on Christmas day is as about as easy as shooting fish in a barrel with an Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle! Wishing you all a holiday filled with hope – a Ralphy kind of hope.
…..or City Hall. December 9 ,2012 was an historic day in Washington as gay and lesbian couples were legally married (hundreds in Seattle alone). I set out with my camera and hit the Shotgun Ceremonies Wedding Chapel and the Seattle City Hall. Only a few blocks away the Seattle Seahawks were being cheered on by thousands of fans, but the cheers of fans outside of City Hall just about drowned them out as couple after couple exited grinning from ear to ear.
A little late. Thank you veterans!
Shot this in Hyde Park at the President’s home town barber in 2008. So glad that smile is staying in office and on his face. Since I can barely afford a haircut right now, I might have to just go home for the holidays and celebrate with a trim at The Hyde Park Hair Salon!http://hydeparkhairsalon.net/
