I still see two little elementary school kids.
Two girls making fake YouTube videos, making slime, giggling over who knows what, and growing up alongside each other without realizing how quickly all of it would go.
Then they became softball players. Sometimes on the same team, sometimes playing against each other, but always friends when the game was over.
Over the years, their interests changed. Their lives changed. Friend groups shifted, schedules got busier, and somehow they kept finding their way back to each other.
I really love that.
I love that my daughter has a friend she’s known since elementary school. Someone she still roots for, cheers on, and genuinely wants good things for. There is something really special about watching a friendship survive all the different versions of growing up.
And then there’s Rianna, who, gave me the same slightly concerned look most girls give me when I demonstrate my version of a “relaxed face.” This is an important part of my very scientific process for avoiding the dreaded RBF we are all apparently blessed with.
I had been wanting to photograph Rianna for a long time, so getting to finally have her in front of my camera was already special. But getting to photograph these two together, in their caps and gowns, at the end of a chapter that started when they were little girls?
That meant even more.
Because these photographs aren’t only about graduation.
They’re about all the years that came before it, too.
