The 'i want to take a portrait of Eddie Vedder' project

I now have one of the portrait images and a brief write-up over at my photography blog.

Thanks again for following the campaign.

Cheers, Jennifer.

Evidently, I haven’t posted The Portrait yet, although it is coming soon.  I have a good reason why I uploaded one more project image today.  I will explain.

On my quest, there are some special PJ fans that I have come to know. I have never met them, but thanks to Pearl Jam, we now have a bond. I would like to dedicate this post to Tessa (from Seattle), Alex, Ian and Nathaniel (from Adelaide) and Michael (from Sydney).

Tessa. She was one of the first people to contact me about the project and offer her help. She was/is always filled with advice and options and ideas and support. To the brim. She never runs out of something helpful to say! Seriously. She has done so much for me, including delivering a photo book of the first 50 project images to PJ’s headquarters. Yes, she did! I think my project journey would have been very different without Tessa. To show my gratitude, I ended up getting a print of her favourite project image signed by EV.

Ian. He wrote to tell me how he was going to propose to his girlfriend Georgie at the first EV concert. I felt honoured that he shared that with me, and I really admired the way he spoke about Georgie, too. I dedicated Day 68 to Ian. ‘Guaranteed’ is their song. (Just so you all know, he did propose, yahoo!, and when Ed sang Guaranteed at the show, I couldn’t stop thinking about the happy couple up in the balcony!) Anyway, right before I was about to meet EV, I sent Ian a text indicating how I was feeling. He replied with words he thought would help me chill out. “Sheets of empty canvas” were among those words, and it was most fitting, and was the perfect thing to say to me at that moment. I will never forget it. Ian, you rock. Wishing you and Georgie the very best.

Alex. His emails were so down to earth, and he was throwing ideas my way, and I appreciated every one of them. He later forwarded me an email that he sent to a writer with some media contacts, hoping that it would help me get my foot  in the door.  The email blew me away. I couldn’t believe he had sent that, not knowing who I was, but trusting my project and wanting to see me fulfill a dream. I was really moved by that gesture.

Michael. Thanking him for all the helpful tweets, especially his what-to-dos and what-not-to-dos.  I always appreciated his different perspective and the mini insight into EV’s character and interests.

Nathaniel.  I was set to photograph his Vitalogy tattoo but our schedules kept clashing and so he didn’t make the the 85 images. A couple of days before the first EV show, he sent me a message suggesting that he could photocopy my images and hand them out as fliers at the concert. I thought it was kinda hilarious and kinda cool, but was conscious of the fact that it could be seen as disruptive. (I was really flattered though!) Nathaniel then said he would like to get a shot by me even if the project was over. Yesterday, he sent me a goodbye message as he was getting ready to go overseas. I told him that I’d take his picture when he returned. I got a shock when he said that wouldn’t be for some years from now.

I couldn’t let him go without a picture, could I?

And so that is why I have uploaded one more image. Of Nathaniel. I took it today.

Safe travels: to my new friends, and to those who have followed my journey all along.

:)

Will be forever grateful that EV gave me his time.

I still can’t believe it.

Some details will follow on my photography blog soon.

(The face behind it all. Taken by my husband.)

This turned out to be more than a portrait quest. I embarked on quite a journey. So many people to thank. So much to appreciate.

Thank you to Andrew from the furniture shop, Maria Aloisi, Atkins Technicolour, Taryn Brumfitt, Shane Gration, William & Hudson Grenfell, Belinda & Sebastian Harley, Tabatha & Mark Ingle, Selina Jones, Stuart Knowles, Adrian Lopresto, Leanne Lazaridis, Daniel Marcuccio, Michael Murray, everyone at PLAN BIG (especially Catherine Miller), Suzy Ramone, Kylie Sando, Lorna Sando, Ellena Scambiatterra, Sylvia, Ten Club community forum, Toby from the camera shop, Renee Vannettiello and Nathanial Williams.

Special thanks to Tessa Gonzales, Alex Conlon, Ian Hendry, Emily Vawser, Claude Raschella and my family (cheers to my sister Sophie Siciliano). Your support means the world to me.

Ultimate thanks to Pearl Jam. Without the music, this project wouldn’t exist.