sarah tew photography

NOT ONLY did Keith and I enjoy ourselves immensely watching the returns with friends at a party in the east village, we got ENGAGED last night! About 30 seconds into the wild celebration that ensued after NBC or whomever we were watching officially called the election for Obama, Keith came over to hug me (I put down my camera for a moment) and he took my hand, said he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me, and put a ring on my finger! Like, a diamond ring! That he saved up and bought for me! I couldn’t beleive it. It was a fitting moment for him to propose- we are both pretty politically invested/interested people and had been obama converts since his speech at the 2004 DNC, which had made us both cry. Well, 4 years later here we are crying together again, this time with happiness for our future together. It’s been a long time coming, oh yes, we’ve been living together for 5 years, we’re practically married already, but let’s face it, weddings are a lot of fun. And we’re going to have one! Yay! Here are my favorite photos from the party, and i’ll post a few from Jeff Zorabedian, my friend and frequent 2nd shooter/assistant at weddings– he was nearby and saw what was going on –he got these great shots of us when he noticed what was transpiring between us!

and then someone else (forget who!) took this pic of Jeff with us in the background… I had just shouted “we’re gonna get married!” and Alex, the host of this party, is on the left pointing at us… what a night!

Here were some of the shots I took before and during the victory announcement…for some reason they’re posting out of order in this gallery…

I started this blog with the intention that it would be strictly limited to my photography adventures… well, several days ago I found out that my favorite author, David Foster Wallace, had hanged himself on Friday, Sept. 12th. This news has saddened me immensely, and I find myself seemingly unable to stop googling for snippets of audio, interviews, readings, and rare short stories, etc that I can find of him. I shot a wedding on Saturday that I really should be editing (oh, I’ve started, don’t worry, it’ll get done by the saturday deadline for online proofing) but I keep going back in my mind to David Foster Wallace and the immensity of our loss, as readers and citizens, of the precious voice of this mammoth American mind.

He was the only famous person I’ve ever written a letter to– I couldn’t help it. I finished reading Infinite Jest and immediately began typing a letter to him. With it I sent several prints of my photographs, as a thank you. He wrote me back, indeed, we corresponded for some time– he asked me to send more prints as he had put a few over his desk for inspiration. I felt so honored thinking of him now and then glancing at a photograph of mine. At the time I hadn’t yet planned to become a professional photographer, but I’m certain that this small validation of the quality of my work made me take myself more seriously and aim higher.

I am not the first person to mourn him on a blog… but I feel I must join voices with the choir of his readers and say that we are all culturally poorer in his absence. I actually feel the world is a lonelier place without his brilliant and insightful commentary– however infrequently it was published. Reading his work made you feel like you knew him and he knew you– more intimately than any best friend. His capacity for communication of complex inner truths, his genuine kindness and deep empathy with other human beings, his endless curiosity and passionate observation of the workings and dysfunctions of our civilization– these qualities were unmatched by anyone I have read or known. I would recommend his writing to anyone who likes reading insightful, unbeleivably funny, painfully sad and true, minutely descriptive writing… I just can’t fathom why someone so clearly intrigued by experience– a fascinated watcher of the world– why he wouldn’t want to stick around to see what happened next. But the nature of fatal depression is, of course, something one can surely never quite fathom from the outside.

His books, for anyone interested:

The Broom of the System (novel, quirky metafiction-ish, maybe not for everyone)
Girl With Curious Hair (short fiction, amazing)
Infinite Jest (giant novel, worth the investment– his best work by most appraisals)
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (experimental fiction: scarily excellent)
A Supposadely Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again (essays, amazing)
Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity (i don’t recommend unless you love math)
Consider The Lobster (Essays, also great)
Oblivion (short fiction, some real knockout stories among the collection)

A friend forwarded me a link to a commencement speech he gave at Kenyon in 2005. It is, sadly, wincingly good in its assessment of the value and true purpose of a college education to a modern american adult. I can’t imagine anyone not getting something of value from the thoughts he expresses here.

the link is here:

http://www.marginalia.org/dfw_kenyon_commencement.html