Photo by Linda Brownlee
www.lindabrownlee.com
As a naieve 12 year old on my first day in Loreto Abbey Rathfarnham boarding school in Dublin, having put my things into my tiny wardrobe and laid out my Garfield duvet on my tiny bed in my tiny cubicle, I set out into the hundred girl strong dormitary to choose my best friend. I look back now and realize I was choosing a mate, my very own partner in crime for the next 5 years, I was seeking someone extremely attractive, boldly athletic and effortlessly confident.
As I cruised the dorm a beautiful golden haired girl with the best legs i've ever seen caught my eye, she was lit up from the inside like a little chef on a lonely highway, pretty as a rose and exuding an air of dazzling self assurance. She was perfection.
Over zealous and full of my own self worth I approached this glorious creature and tried to woo her by regaling tales of my boy conquests at Irish college.
I came on too strong.
She backed off like a yearling refusing to put a bridle for the first time.
It took me 2 months to convince Linda I was meant to be her best friend forever, she eventually realized this to be the truth and we have been best buddies ever since.
We have run across countries together, jumped metres into the wet sand of long jumps in all the counties of Ireland, rode ponies to victory flank to flank, orchestrated midnight feasts, tasted sweet triumph in the dizzy neon glow of the dorm toilets at 5am shoulder to shoulder conquering Mario Kart on our gameboys and had an extremely succesfull school christmas fete selling fimo penguin brooches that had been moulded under the tables of many of our maths, business studies and religion classes for the whole preceeding month of December.
In the last 6 years I've watched Linda blossom into one of the most talented young photographers that I know. She has a knack for making people love her, actually she doesnt have to make them, they just do. Her pictures as a result are beautiful, intimate and awe- inspiring.
This evening Linda Brownlee my lifetime best friend and rock is part of a group show of 6 super talented young portrait photographers in the print space on Kingsland Road 'You me and everybody else' from 7pm.
It's also her birthday, so come see some brilliantly observed portrait photography and help her celebrate being amazing and one year wiser.
Happy Birthday Linda, I love you.
