isabela at home

I have photographed Isabela Rose Becker many times over the years, but this was the first time I photographed her at home.

The shoot was created for a project in Level III of the Modern Photography Academy. The theme was Memory Palace: People, Places and Objects, which made me think about the way a home becomes a collection of the things that matter to us.

Isabela had recently moved into a loft in downtown Dallas, and her home felt like a natural setting for the project. We incorporated some of the things she loves into the photographs: her two cats, her wedding photos, a set of Italian leather chairs she found on Facebook Marketplace, the horns her parents gave her, her art, and, her love of Dolly Parton.

Those details became the starting point for the photographs.

I wanted to photograph Isabela within the life she had created there, rather than simply use her loft as a location. We photographed her among the wedding pictures, at the dining table, curled up with her cats, and moving through the rooms and objects that make the space hers.

There is one detail from the afternoon that I don't think I'll ever forget.

A Dolly Parton print hangs above Isabela's record player, and a Dolly quote — Start each day with a grateful heart — hangs in her kitchen. We had been talking about Dolly as we photographed them.

About five minutes after we finished the shoot, we learned that Dolly had died.

Suddenly, two objects we had photographed simply because they were part of Isabela's world also marked the particular day on which these photographs were made.

That's one of the things I love about photographs. We make them for one reason, and sometimes time gives them another.