Blossom.

The bud

Hannah. Newstead Abbey, Nottingham. 16 May 2010.

Puberty- most religions celebrate it as an important point in a person's development. The passage from childhood to adulthood. But it doesn't happen at exactly the same age for everyone. I'm sure I hit it in my later teens, but it was confusing and scary, feeling urges and surges that I didn't understand or seem to be able to control....

The eyes have it

Hannah is my fourth child, born a good 8 years after no. 3. In this photo she was 14yrs and 6 months old. This trip to Newstead Abbey with my sister and her young sons was the day I saw Hannah for the first time as a young woman. She had a confidence in her style, she was prepared to play with her cousins and Saffron, her little sister, but more in a supervisory role than a participant. She held intelligent conversations with Barbara about bands and 'stuff'....

Style guru

As ever, I had my camera with me and I realised I needed to capture this moment, mostly so that I could take the images and maybe compare them with other recent photographs, to see when this 'change' happened, because I'd missed it! She was initially reluctant to pose for me, but years of having a camera pointed at her soon had her humoring me.

And now Saffron is 12. I hope my life isn't in as much turmoil as that sunny day in 2010 that I somehow miss her growing up, too.