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Writer's pictureLuminous Butter.

Family Portrait (Page 10)


an empty set table in a restaurant
dinner with friend

I introduced them so I guess you could say it’s partly my fault. I’m not gonna take full responsibility because if he wasn’t thinking only with his you know what and she didn’t tell all those lies, setting two people up who you think will like each other is a good thing. Yes, let’s say I did a good thing. It’s just I chose the wrong two.


It wasn’t till they were living together that he came to me with what he called ‘niggles’


I didn't even think about these things until he pointed them out to me. Like having no social media accounts. This made me laugh as only he would label that a bad thing. I told him that makes her a well adjusted woman who has higher self confidence and worth than her counterparts. I also pointed out that having no social media is the new rebellion, very much her as she lives in the present and doesn’t care what people think or say. To this he actually agreed with his words and gave me a sort of vacant unsure smile like you do to the insane to shut them up.


After the waiter came to take our plates away and our desserts and another round of drinks arrived I could tell he was still disturbed and confused. So, I asked him outright - is that all you’re working with? She ain’t on Facebook? To this he gave a genuine full belly laugh and said that of course that wasn’t his only concern. Then he explained that she talks about her friends but gets the details mixed up or wrong and that he’s never actually met or spoke to any of them. He did confess that he had seen pictures but that she wasn’t in any of them. She apparently said well of course not. I’m the photographer, darling in a very theatrical way. I mean, if you knew her, you could, for sure, picture her saying it, lol. Picture her. To this, I laughed as he actually acted it out for me in the middle of dessert and in the middle of the restaurant. I had to apologise to a few tables. I sneakily lied to them that he was my camp brother from out of town who doesn’t get out much. Which he played up to and which we both were endlessly amused by.


This one, unlike the first one, did seem a bit odd but as I hadn’t seen any of her now infamous shots the only question that sprang to mind was is she the new Herb Ritts or Sheila Rock? Who? was his response. To this, I tirelessly informed the philistine that they were/still are both fantastic portrait photographers. I even googled them on my phone for him and he recognised both their work and their subjects. He informed me he liked Miss Rocks photography better as he used to be a punk from what I could gather. I don’t know, he spoke about scruffy women with bad haircuts. I told him I was a scruffy woman with a bad haircut once and the only thing that was worse than my hair was my taste in men. Thank god, both have improved over the years.


He said he hadn’t really paid attention to the quality of the photographs and didn’t really see the reason for me asking. I told him that if she is, in fact, a talented photographer, her friends would’ve wanted her behind the lens instead of in front and that photographers don’t like having their picture taken. So there may be a quite reasonable explanation for her not to be in the photos. He told me he would take a closer look at them with his now expert quality controlled eyes. I also pointed out that she’s moved a bunch of times and doesn’t seem that attached to material things, is old and decrepit like us so she would still have physical photos rather than digital. She may have lost or thrown the ones with herself in them away. He retorted with so much for her high self esteem.


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