Riverside is awesome because of the many different enclaves present in it.  “There’s no way that’s in suburban Chicago,” my friend said, after looking at this photo.  “No way that’s anywhere near an urban center.”  “It’s less than two blocks from my place,” I said.  “It’s not only less than two blocks from my place, it’s about 100 feet from a public works department.”  It blew his mind.

I’d seen this cottage multiple times while walking by and always thought the same thing: it looks like the modern equivalent of the cottage that Snow White finds.  It’s about the friendliest, warmest looking dwelling you’ll ever see.

I was excited as anything when the cottage owners, Ed and Sue, graciously allowed me to shoot there.  It was an interesting shoot for several reasons, the number one reason being that I wasn’t sure how to frame the photo. I knew that I wanted to have a woman dressed in blue and yellow (Snow White style) seeing this cottage and being curious about it… but didn’t know how quite to capture that.

I shot it from the right, from straight on and from the left.  The left (which is this photo) worked significantly better than the other sides, thus I ended up with this!  This is truly one of my favorite photos of the series.  It’s not just that it comes off as a part of a greater story, it’s that through the body language and positioning of the model, Zola Giammasi-Scaman, you know exactly what story that is.