St. Gabriel, Louisiana 2 - 2001

This is a small, intimate photographic plate made by Deborah Luster. It looks like a memory, doesn’t it? Something seen through time. The sepia-toned image with its antique feel makes me think of daguerreotypes. Looking at this woman's face, I wonder who she was, what her life was like in St. Gabriel. I imagine Luster carefully preparing the plate, calibrating the exposure just right. I wonder what it was like to be in the room with the sitter. Maybe she saw the luminous quality of her skin and those pearls and knew she had to make this plate. There's a quiet strength in her eyes, a softness in the way the light catches her face, and a sense of dignity in her poise. These are things that Luster would have been trying to capture. Artists see each other, across time, and help each other to see.