People keep asking me about my first “First Woman” – why did I pick Sarah Outen to photograph as the first woman to feature in my growing number of portraits depicting amazing women who have achieved a first (sometimes more than one!) in their lives?
Well, let me go back to the beginning and you will see how Sarah has proved to be the inspiration for my whole First Women project. Back in the summer of 2009 I typed in “First Women” and came across Sarah’s Blog on the Internet – at that time she was focused on becoming the first woman to row solo across the Indian Ocean (and she completed the task in just 124 days). As soon as I read about her inspirational journey I was hooked and didn’t even wait for her to return to dry land before contacting her to see if she would let me photograph her for what was then an embryonic project!
I caught up with Sarah at Southampton Boat Show and then went to Rutland Water in Leicester where I was able to take some great portraits of Sarah and her faithful boat “Serendipity” or as Sarah nicknamed it - “Dippers”.
Nearly two years later Sarah joined me on the stage at the Accenture International Women’s Day Celebration and we had the great honour of both kicking off the event – with me doing the warm up act – and Sarah inspiring everyone with her tales of “can do” in the finale!
And proving that she really is a woman whose actions speak even louder than words, I was fortunate enough to see Sarah at London’s Tower Bridge departing for her next great adventure at the beginning of April: London 2 London – via the World. It goes without saying that I am following her Blog and regular updates as she sets out on her epic journey around the world – take a look: http://www.sarahouten.com/blog/.
No comments:
Post a Comment