Bid Williams
Portrait Anecdotes
by Heide Smith
The Sitting
The first contact I had with Bid Williams, was when she rang to ask if I would be prepared to do some promotional photography for Pegasus, the Canberra branch of Riding for the Disabled. I am asked almost daily to do complimentary photography for charities, but I must admit that when I saw the way that young children with disabilities changed, the moment that they sat on a horse, I was totally won over. Some of the children could not walk without aids, some could not totally control their movements, but on horseback, they quietened, their faces beaming with happiness as they cuddled the horse’s neck; it was as if someone had waved a magic wand and changed them into different people. It seemed to me that Bid Williams was the one with the wand.
I took lots of photographs of the children, and of Bid and the many other wonderful people who were dedicating their time to this very worthy cause. In fact, it resulted in an exhibition, held at the Canberra Theatre in 1996, but I wanted a special portrait of this remarkable woman. It had to include a horse of course, so I chose the background first with Bid talking to the horse, and only at the last moment did I ask her to turn around. You have to work fast or you lose the natural and open expression that I hope that I have captured in this portrait.
The sitter
The first contact I had with Bid Williams, was when she rang to ask if I would be prepared to do some promotional photography for Pegasus, the Canberra branch of Riding for the Disabled. I am asked almost daily to do complimentary photography for charities, but I must admit that when I saw the way that young children with disabilities changed, the moment that they sat on a horse, I was totally won over. Some of the children could not walk without aids, some could not totally control their movements, but on horseback, they quietened, their faces beaming with happiness as they cuddled the horse’s neck; it was as if someone had waved a magic
wand and changed them into different people. It seemed to me that Bid Williams was the one with the wand.
I took lots of photographs of the children, and of Bid and the many other wonderful people who were dedicating their time to this very worthy cause. In fact, it resulted in an exhibition, held at the Canberra Theatre in 1996, but I wanted a special portrait of this remarkable woman. It had to include a horse of course, so I chose the background first with Bid talking to the horse, and only at the last moment did I ask her to turn around. You have to work fast or you lose the natural and open expression that I hope that I have captured in this portrait.
