Saturday, March 20, 2010

Billy Holiday, Simply The Best

Listening to Billie Holiday the ultimate connection again tonight, such emotion in her singing, cannot think of of anyone that puts more feeling into her songs. Her tragic private life (drug addiction, abuse both sexual as a child and physical as an adult, and early death) plays a role in how you listen to her, she is so special, damn an amazing vocalist, simply the best!

I would have loved to photograph her, maybe that's what attracts me to photographing women working the bars in Thailand, the tragic circumstances they often find themselves in. I feel connected to these kind of women, identify with her somehow, feel the need to tell their stories. Bla and Long have had the same lives to Billie in some ways, it's to late to photograph Miss Holiday but not to late to make important photographs of others suffering the same fate.