Maria has the most beautiful face, the most radiant smile, her eyes sparkle with ideas and love, I rarely show her face in my photographs and it is a rare day that someone doesn’t message me about it or write me a letter asking why they can’t see more of her, why I so rarely show her face. So I think they deserve an answer as I am getting a lot of heat about it, which is fair enough. The question are always polite, and I don’t show my face in photos either, but I am interested to notice that almost no one has ever asked to see more of me, I think that speaks for itself.

There are several reasons I rarely show Maria’s face in my photographs. The big one is creative. I think Maria’s connection to the animals here is mystical, powerful. Like a lot of people, Maria is wary of acknowledging how much she loves our animals, all animals, how much they mean to her. Like many animal lovers, she is wary of being branded an animal nut or crazy person. She has been ridiculed much in her life, she is sensitive to it, I have perhaps contributed to it by squawking a lot about over-emotionalizing animals in my writing.

We both are animal nuts, look at our lives, we live with donkeys, sheep, dogs, barn cats and chickens. What sane person does that? I don’t want the photos to focus on Maria, I want them to focus on her connection with the animals, her speaking with them.

I also want to protect her privacy a bit, I admit. It is not simple living with someone like me, I always have a camera in my hand, I love taking photographs of her because I learned early on if you photograph the things you love, you will get good photographs. Maria doesn’t pose for photos and I don’t ask her too, so it is rare for her to be looking full-face at the camera. Once in awhile, I can get her to sit still for a portrait, I think it is important for both of us to do it once in awhile – me too. Today I let Maria photograph Simon and me, I am not comfortable seeing my face in photos either, but if you dish it out, you need to take it.