True story.
It happened years ago. It was a moment of triumph for me. For
Sarah ... a moment of revelation.
I had always noticed women in rubber. In the rain. At the beach.
They are still some of my earliest memories.
The lovely, laughing face framed by the head-hugging swimcap.
Those eyes. Wickedness and sweet humiliation.
The slender legs in their clumsy boots as she splashed her way
home through the puddles.
Raindrops on smooth blackness ... there at the bus-stop.
It was sensual. It was sexual. It was bizarre ... and it was
beautiful.
I wanted to capture it.
Sarah had been very surprised when I handed her
the old rubber swimming cap. She had been horrified, in fact.
She had already looked at me strangely when I had asked her to
slip on the gloves. Now this! A bathing cap!
She had not worn one since she was at school. She had not even
seen one since those days.
She had not liked them then - and she did not like them now. They
were silly, she said.
Embarrassing.
The girls hated them. The boys ... well ... the boys always
NOTICED them. Sometimes they teased.
She toyed with the rubber, running the rim of the cap through her
fingers. Suddenly she pressed it to her face
and drew the strong aroma deep into her lungs. It seemed to take
her back to those shameful days. She shivered.
"Still ... if it's what you want ... "
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Instinctively she dipped her head and, with a
long-forgotten expertise, she pulled and stretched the rubber
into place.
The long blue chinstrap jiggled against her neck. She captured
the little buckle and secured it with a snap.
"Hold still ..." I took her head. I smoothed the little
diving girls and tucked a stray hair out of site beneath the rim.
She was perfect. Smooth and seamless.
I reached for the camera.
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Two days later, she called in to see the prints.
We spread them out.
She stared for an eternity ... the strangest expression in her
eyes.
"Hmmm ... " She seemed to be embarrassed once again.
" I'm not sure how to say this ... I wonder ... would you
mind ..."
I waited ... What would she say?
Would you BURN them? Would you HIDE them?
Would you promise NEVER to show them to a soul?
She smiled .
"Would you be able to print an
extra set ... for ME ...?"
Sarah often wears rubber for me now.
With or without the camera ...
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Women in Rubber
I hope you think so, too ...