Vulnerable Women: II
"Giantessa Hits Tribeca"
It began with a latte and a look. She sat across the table from me in a coffee shop on the Lower East Side, familiar in the way blood runs deep. A glint of Irish in her eyes made me think we might be family, tied together by some ancestral thread from the O’Malley line of County Cork.
When she stood, my astonished eyes followed. She kept rising—head to the ceiling, as if the room couldn’t contain her. A twenty-foot woman, stunning and radiant, stepping out of a pulp fiction paperback straight into my life. Her height made her seem all-powerful. She took hold of my heart before I even knew her name.
I followed her into the white-hot street, afraid she might vanish before I could understand who she was. I felt like Alice in Wonderland, chasing after a heady dream.
She sat facing the northern sun, quiet and calm. I was curious, drawn in. As our conversation unfolded, I knew the stars had tilted in my favor.
Soon I was climbing the stairs to her sixth-floor walk-up in Chinatown, carrying her size 17 ½ sneakers, freshly washed at the Chinese laundry. A couple of days later she came to the Bat Cave to formalize our friendship and be photographed. She took off her clothes in the SheWolf shower, and under the downpour of warm water, her psych transformed, cleansing her from the emotions which troubled her. Drying off on the fire escape, Giantessa leaned over and spied a toy-like red Porsche sliding into the garage below—it was the local superhero’s car, intruding on our reverie. She was intrigued, wanting to go out and meet the superhero, Kris Brown.
But nothing could break the spell I was in, floating on a cloud photographing the woman I see as the new world order.
This may sound like pulp fiction, but hear me out: the best photographs don’t come from fear or conquest. They are born from love, from awe, from the mutual generosity that allows you to step into the fire of a vulnerable, strong woman who knows who she is and why she is with you.
And so, with pleasure, I introduce you to fearless and lovely Giantessa. Thank you for following tales from the Bat Cave.
