This is Susan Stimpson, candidate for Falmouth Supervisor, Stafford County, Virginia.I first met Susan a couple years ago when she was the Stafford, Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania regional campaign manager for then candidate, Richard Stuart. He was running for the Virginia State Senate (a tough race which he won thanks in good measure to Susan's hard work and dedication).
The day of that first meeting, we were relying on Susan to be our "go-to-gal" to help us gain access to all the various locations and wrangle the extras into the shoots we had scheduled for candidate Stuart.
She may have been just a volunteer, but wow, did she make things happen. That hot summer day in 2007 was one of the smoothest (although long) days of location work I've ever had thanks to her relationships with folks throughout Fredericksburg/Stafford region.
This year, in 2009, its Susan's turn to be the candidate. Earlier this summer, I jumped at the chance to see her again, and even tho I'm a Democrat and she's a Republican (I know, I know, I have lots of GOP friends even though I'm true-Blue) I truly feel this is a "woman on the verge."
I think Stimpson will run for governor one day. Seriously. I want to be able to say "I knew her when". But of course, she has her current race to run, which is happening right now.
One of Susan's platform issues is education for a high-tech workforce and job creation in Stafford for high-tech industries and business that support the Federal Government.
Her day-job is a budget analyst for the US State Department, working for a government contractor. Folks who already know her understand she's got a head for business. But for the folks who don't yet know her, we needed to reinforce that with imagery.
These types of conference room shoots are hard work, but I enjoy them tremendously. First off, the folks in the room are "real people". Not actors, not campaign staffers. My goal with this type of shooting is to try to get the candidate and the constituents to engage in conversation that's meaningful. That way, they keep their focus, and don't get bored with the tedium of the shoot (i.e. shot after shot after shot.)
I get each person to take a turn asking a question of the candidate. I use those moments to capture what I call "active listening" images of the candidate. Then, I capture images of the candidate responding to the question.
Its only natural that one starts to listen to the folks in the room, even though I'm supposed to be focused on the visual aspects of the scene.
After hearing these folks talk about the issues that concern their everyday lives, I came away with an overwhelming sense that this area of central Virgina, just a thin county line from what we call Northern Virginia, is markedly different from it's neighbor to the south, Richmond and it's surrounding counties. It was if I'd gone to another state.
Plus, it was fun to be the "fly on the wall" listening to the candidate tune her responses and warm up for the public forums and debates that were sure to be more rancorous as the campaign season heats up post-Labor Day.
All images and text Copyright 2009, Elaine Odell, Church Hill Photography, LLC. No unauthorized use allowed.