Recently I lost an old friend to cancer. It was a recurrence of the breast cancer she's suffered from years earlier.
She was "cured" back in 1994, but a period of extreme stress in her life weakened her enough for the lurking malignancy to re assert itself attacking her spine last year. She and I hadn't seen each other much since I left Seattle in 1988, but she was always a person I made a point of seeing whenever I visited.
I did get to spend a few days with her last spring. We wandered about the coffee shops and restaurants of her first hill neighborhood. Talked non-stop as we always have. She was the same as I had always known her. Towering intellect but gentle. Smart but wise. Still with a needle to puncture the fatuous though
I'm profoundly saddened by the loss of this brilliant woman. Such a varied life, A world traveler with no money. Multi lingual. Profoundly curious. Too young. To much left to do. She had just finished a master's degree in Acupuncture at The University of Washington when this stressful period interrupted her and brought her cancer back.
Her courage was amazing. She never flagged. She was always cheerful. She saw her own death as part of Life and was looking forward to the next phase. Her ashes will be spread on the early fall snows of the cascade mountains so she can, as she herself said, "melt back into the earth". I hope someday before too long to hike that wilderness. As beautiful as it is, it will be even more so because of the presence of her beautiful spirit.
I hope I can be half as brave when my time comes.
"The pride of the peacock is the glory of God. The lust of the goat is the bounty of God. The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God. The nakedness of woman is the work of God.""Man has no body distinct from his soul; for that called body is a portion of the soul discern'd by the five senses, the chief inlets of the soul in this age." William Blake (1757 - 1827)
Testimonial 1"I think one of the wonderful things about David's work is that he truly appreciates the honest beauty of a woman, without the gloss and pretense that so many photographers hide their subjects in. By letting ME shine through and not a photoshop filter, he is demonstrating his trust in something that goes beyond glam. He is showing Life. These are images that make you want to crawl into them, reach out and touch, caress, smile and love with. That of course, is just MY opinion.. : ) " ~Betcee MayTestimonial 2"David LeBeck's beautifully alluring figure photography masters the qualities of something so powerfully and mysteriously attractive and fascinating that he redefines erotica on an even deeper intimate level. LeBeck draws you in on such a private and personal relationship with the models that he shoots, that you feel as though you are experiencing something so private, so tender that you are flooded with comfort, warmth, relaxation, and even familiarities with someone you probably will never meet. You know these moments, these intimacies, these encounters. LeBeck's intimate correspondences disarm you and draw you in." STUDIO583ART "We are passive onlookers in a world that moves perpetually. Our only moment of creation is that 1/125th of a second when the shutter clicks, the signal is given, and motion is stopped..."
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