FIRST PHOTO:
I walked into a SufferJets practice session for the first time last August, 2009. I had just finished a photography workshop and was anxious to find a project in which I could absorb myself photographically. I love to document…life and people. I love public events and activities in which people let loose. When the Ithaca Journal wrote about the SufferJet team in May, 2008, I cut the article out of the paper and stuffed it into my “ideas” file. I wanted to drive straight to the rink, but I didn’t. I didn’t feel ready. And it wasn’t until more than a year later (after the workshop, after a small photo exhibit at Gimme! Coffee, after I wondered to myself, “What are you waiting
for?”) that I worked up the courage to walk into the rink. This is the very first photo I took. There have been hundreds more since then.

Lauren (Shatterbug) has been taking pictures of the ILWR since August 09. An amateur who is smitten by documentary-style photograhy, she knew she had found her subject when she walked into a SufferJets practice session for the first time. She has become a true fan of the sport, a sincere admirer of the league and its skaters and a member of the extended derby family.