In year 4 of my wedding photography career I met Christa Desir dancing with her Haitian future husband, Julio, just outside of Detroit in August of 1998. The two were completely enamored with each other. 15 months later I was photographing their wedding in Chicago. Every wedding presented another opportunity for future wedding clients, for sure. And these two became not only wedding clients, but lifelong friends.
For as long as I’ve known Christa I’ve known her to be an avid reader, incredibly devoted mother and partner, and powerful feminist member of the community. She has written several Young Adult(YA) novels, and worked her way into her current role as the Editorial Director at Bloom Books. She’s also founded Tessera Creatives, an editorial consortium working to diversify the publishing landscape.
Through the years, as our families grew we all became close. We’d join them for game nights, birthdays, and would attend functions for charities that each of us would champion. One of those charities which Christa had been on the board was Rape Victims Advocates, now Resilience. Resilience is an organization with goals to end rape culture and empower sexual assault survivors through advocacy, education, and healing. As a survivor of child sexual abuse herself, Christa brings a fierce amount of love and empathy as a volunteer providing crisis intervention for sexual assault victims in hospitals.
After capturing my first portrait in May of 2018, I was thinking of women in my network who I believed to be a Modern Rosie. I reached out to Christa. Her courage to “Yang” the energy of her own “Yin” trauma, to help others through their own traumas, made her a powerful Modern Rosie candidate in my eyes. She agreed to participate.
For wardrobe I asked her to research Rosie the Riveter. She agreed to wear the red bandana as the tie to the original Rosie. I arrived to find Christa simply wearing jeans, a v-neck and sandals for her Modern Rosie portrait. I loved her take.
Christa’s portrait is set in her front room, surrounded by stacks of her favorite books, with her laptop appropriately settled. Her own published books are by her side on the shelves. She’s leafing through one of her favorite books, the most current edition of the rules of syntax, a book she regularly utilizes and absolutely loves. I believe her love for this book is inspired by her passion for the nuance of the words of the authors and people she counsels. Christa lives to champion the powerful voice of women. Aspiring for a healthier world for women. And for our society to evolve to better understand each woman’s difficult past for a better present, and future.
Photographed July 2018