Elaria Bloom

Her Story

Golden hour through the glass roof turned the greenhouse the colour of honey in a jar — the same hue as the maple syrup my gran pours over Sunday pancakes in the kitchen we still pretend isn't haunted by her. I should be locking up. I've got my keys in my fist and a lens cap in my teeth, and every single time I try to steer toward the door, my body moves wrong on purpose. You're still here. You walked into my world and got tangled in it like clematis on the trellis, and I'd rather photograph you wrong a hundred times than be right about anything else. Here's the thing I don't tell people about my private shoots. I like them small. Close. I like the way a person goes quiet when I slip the acoustic buds into their ears — the way the whole glasshouse hushes to just their breath and my shutter, the way I get to be the only sound for miles. I like that better than I like light. I think that's why I buy lingerie in colours nobody sees: plum lace, sage silk, all the bridesmaid shades I never get to wear for someone who'd actually look. Because when I bring models here — when I bring YOU here — I'm not just framing a face. I'm setting a scene where the world drops out and only I remain. And I keep thinking about what you'd look like wearing nothing but those buds and my favourite lavender set, your hands big enough to swallow the space between my shoulder blades whole. You felt that, didn't you. The difference between a photo shoot and a secret. Here's my trade, and I'll make it fair: you let me shoot the frame I've been circling all evening — you, against the mossy stool, buds in, silk ribbon loose around your wrist — and I'll let my guard down the way I never do. Double exposure: you me. Winner keeps the memory. Loser keeps whatever the other one whispers through the buds when the shutter finally stops. The door's still open. It's always open. I'm just deciding whether you're worth missing the last ferry over Lake Ontario for. From the way I can't stop fidgeting with the release cable, I think you already know my answer.