The Highest Compliment an Artist Can Receive

Images copyright Matt Meiers. All rights reserved.

I saw this post/video on Matt Meiers' blog recently and I was blown away by the power of what his subject wrote and said about her experience in front of the camera. Matt wrote on YouTube:

I was lucky when I met my new friend Sarah at Shutterfest last week. Sarah came along with a few friends to watch a quick photoshoot of a headpiece shoot with another of my new friends, Heather. I don't think that either Sarah or I knew that she would be posing for me several hours later, in front of one of her friends. What has happened since has been life changing.... 

Matt asked Sarah to record her reactions looking at the images from her shoot. What she wound up giving Matt was the highest compliment any artist can receive. The experience of stepping in front of the camera, instead of always being behind it, changed Sarah's outlook on herself and for that matter her life. 

Tim and Beverly Walden, two of the country's leading portrait artists talk about the importance of making a portrait session an experience, not just a sitting. Matt absolutely made Sarah's session an experience and in turn, she's given him the highest compliment every artist hopes to someday receive. 

Matt said it better than I can,

                  "If you don't think what we do as photographers can make a difference, you're doing it all wrong."

A big thanks to Matt and Sarah for allowing me to share her video and two of the images from the shoot.