One of the institutions I have the pleasure of working with is the College of William & Mary, in Williamsburg, VA.These days, former Supreme Court Associate Justice, Sandra Day O'Connor is the serving as Chancellor for W&M.
She attended the annual Charter Day festivities this year, and I was asked to cover the celebratory, black-tie dinner at the end of the day. This was the second time I'd had the opportunity to photograph her on the college campus. And this time, just like before, I was totally star-struck.
The image above is my favorite picture of her from that night. We have lots of shots of her delivering a speech and doing the formal things on the agenda...but those look as you would expect. At this point, former W&M President, Gene Nichol was at the lectern, and he must have made some jovial remark which made her laugh. Lovely.
She really was the classiest dame in the room...and fell for her. When the event was over, I saw her talking with Harriet Mayor Fulbright (president of the J. William & Harriett Fulbright Center).
Seeing these two amazing women together was really powerful; the Supreme Court Judge and the world peace advocate. I just had to document what appeared to be a warm friendship. With my photojournalist hat on, I followed O'Connor and Fulbright out of the banquet hall, got ahead of them, turned around and walked backwards hoping I wouldn't knock down one of the other guests as I made pictures.
Just after I got this shot, O'Connor said "That's quite enough now." Her words were like a laser beam: delivered with a smile and complete seriousness. It was a little taste of what it might have been like to argue a case before her.
Instantly, I stopped shooting, and scooted back into the ballroom to photograph the other guests.
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