Milena Moser on life stories: Artist of Life

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We met about ten years ago in Santa Fe. I needed new photos for the press and she was recommended to me. But she hesitated. She wanted to get to know me first. She was tall and lanky, with disheveled curls and a steady, searching gaze. She told me that she didn’t like photographing women.

Women are too self-critical and never satisfied with themselves. I had to promise her that I would take pictures without embellishment, without retouching, without studio exposure. I immediately liked it, it corresponded to my state of mind at that time, my irrepressible desire to be myself. I still love these photographs, they are a document of my development.

After leaving Santa Fe, I continued to follow Anna’s adventures on social media. With the same fearless openness that she showed me, she shares her life, her questions, her doubts, and sometimes her despair.

Beneath Santa Fe’s beautiful façade lies a difficult place. The gap between rich and poor, already deep in America, is widening to the point of abyss here.

As a single, self-employed mother of a daughter with special needs, Anna always faced challenges that went beyond her. But then a savior angel appeared to her in the person of a taxi driver. He listened to her concerns and advised her to move to Los Alamos.

The small town where the atomic bomb was once developed is inhabited mainly by scientists. The public schools are excellent and the subsidized housing is safe and pleasant. Anna recognized the angel, she listened to him and followed his advice.

This is what I mean, what I admire so much: the ability to recognize opportunities and take advantage of them. This requires trust, especially in moments of weakness. In my husband’s Toltec culture it is called Naui Olim, two movements. Stand firm and surrender. The art is to feel what movement is appropriate.

Anna gave in at the right moment. She moved to Los Alamos. This summer, her daughter successfully completed school and began her studies. And in front of Anna’s apartment a magnificent flower garden is blooming.

Anna also found an unusual job in Los Alamos: an 89-year-old retired engineer and avid mountaineer was looking for someone to accompany him on his treks on foot or skis. Anna’s condition was permission to photograph him and write about him. Anna learned to cross-country ski. She learned to walk slowly. Just lie down on the floor and rest from time to time. An extraordinary friendship developed despite the 50-year age difference.

Your photographs and reporting touch me, they are intimate and respectful at the same time. And so accurately describes the vulnerability and unexpected, unbridled joy that physical disability brings. I recognize her.

“You are a writer,” I, not the only one, commented on her posts. She is studying to become a paramedic. But she also wrote a play about the mountaineer and their unique relationship, which is being performed today. I was allowed to read it.

And it says: “Anna, do people know that you made me up?” – “Other writers know.”

Source: Blick