I'm posting a picture from last summer of a woman I photographed in rural Pennsylvania. Her name is Joanne Landis and she's a really intriguing woman. She lived in NYC and garnered some attention for being a promising up and coming artist. As life happens however, she went through some twists and turns. Fast forward to present and she now lives in a really remote area of the mountains in a beautiful area of the state. She lives alone on a wonderful piece of land where she paints and writes. Her house is modest and feels like it's out of a movie set really. It's incredibly eclectic and has the sense of organized chaos. She has no t.v, no computer, no Internet.  Her studio is an adjacent barn across the road where she paints really mesmerizing large canvases. We spent the afternoon drinking coffee and talking about art, music, New York;  Sept 11th and how it really impacted her, the loneliness and solitude of living alone in the woods and the ideas of success and motivation of one's pursuit of artistic expression. She is not someone who likes getting photographed (like most people!) but after a few hours of talking she agreed to let me take her picture and we ended up having a really wonderful time. 

I sent her some copies of the pictures and she wrote a beautiful note back thanking me. She thought they were the truest and most honest pictures she's ever had. I like this one here.