One Last Night in the Crown

Every once in a while a performer walks onto a stage and the room changes. That is what Cherries Jubilee did at the Miss Warehouse Sweetheart pageant at Warehouse 29 in February 2009.

By this point I had been shooting shows at the club for a couple of months, still learning how to read a room, anticipate movement, and find the shot before it disappeared. Cherries gave me a lot to work with. This was her final performance as Miss Sweetheart, and she filled the stage with the kind of presence that comes from someone who knows exactly what a moment means. The spinning dress in full flight was one of those shots where you either get it or you don't.

The mirror shot afterward, crown on and sash in place, feels different knowing what it represented. Not a crowning. A farewell.