Unbreakable

This is a beautiful photograph. If you know the actress in this portrait, this picture says it all. If you don't, and you don't know her story, I'd like to describe its context and what this picture looked like to me the first time I saw it. Not very many people read this blog, but to shield her privacy, I will avoid using her name.

You might not be able to tell from this picture that this improv actress is funny and pretty and smart. I should also add that when she performs she is quite sunny. As you step out into the night after one of her shows, some of her sunniness is still with you and you're glad you came. That is certainly the impression she and her team left me with when I saw their show at The PIT on October 29.

It was the next evening that she was walking along Herald Square with an actor and the two of them were struck by a car and ended up in Bellevue with broken legs. She was actually propelled through a store window suffered head trauma. The emergency room nurses told her that with the plate glass crashing upon on her she was lucky to be alive.

This photograph didn’t have to be lit this way, but the choice is probably a reflection of how she felt at that stage of her recovery. This is a portrait of stillness and she looks sad--look at the redness in her face. This dark picture reminds me of those Ad Reinhardt black-on-black abstracts, whose distinguishing shades hover around the threshold of perception--museum-goers who don't pause to look might think those pictures are all black. Like those paintings, this is not a picture of pure darkness. Look at what emerges from the shadows. We can't see her eyes, but if you know her, you might recognize her just from her hair, its curls catching the light. Her nose aligns with her arm below, with the highlight of a fingernail appearing at the center: She is resting her chin on the tops of her fingers--and curving away beneath is the top of her cane. Her right hip, with her right hand resting on it, where the most detail in the picture is, looks solid--you wouldn't know that her right leg is the one in the brace.

I want her to get better--as fast as possible--and I'm glad to say that I saw her onstage on Saturday, complete with leg brace and cane. Her picture is a reminder to me that it takes a lot of strength to document a personal low point--but she has also documented her strength. This is a beautiful picture--and I should have added "strong" to my earlier list about how she is funny and pretty and smart.

And her latest picture on MySpace is the sunny one of her from before all this happened.