This is Beryl, one of the two assistants to arborist Ian Kingsley. Ian is the brilliant young son of legendary Lew Kingsley who has looked after trees in the Hudson Valley area for sixty years. 

After a year with Ian, Beryl throws and fixes ropes and climbs trees to lop branches.  She is a rock climber in her spare time.
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Alessa Kreger, artist and designer

                       Alessa Kreger, artist and designer, Beacon, NY 2019

                    

At first I was not interested in photographing Alessa because I am not drawn to smiling Instagram pictures which is what Caroline showed me when she told me she had met somebody with a very interesting face. "I promise that in repose she does not look like this." she said, so I agreed to do it and a date was set.

Only a glance, as Alessa opened the front door for me and welcomed me into her sitting room, was needed to prove that once again Caroline was right. As Alessa and I stood facing each other she showed me with her unsmiling but warm expressions how very little I would have to do beyond finding some good light.

Alessa has an unusual combination of shyness, politeness and resoluteness. The resoltness was apparent to me by her unstated determination that this photograph was going to work. She did what I asked and joined in the conversations that I initiated. All along I could tell that she was putting herself in my hands, which, she rightly thought, gave us the best chance of getting the picture I wanted.

Alessa's latest graphic book is Breakout. https://www.instagram.com/alessakreger/?hl=en