My dearest Laura,

There has once been a girl I have admired from far away, on a place on the internet that seems so long gone now. I admired her for her photos that seemed to contain such deep emotions, and yet I was feeling like I didn't know her at all. I remember people asking her about the wall she used as a background in many of them, always being jealous of the wall, the wall, the wall. The fascination for it all over the place amused me, for there was so much more to see in her photos than just that (hands down, it is amazing) wall. I spent last night trying to pin down a point where that girl merged with you, one of my dearest photography friends, and came to the conclusion that it must have simply happened when I didn't pay attention.
For the longest time I have been wanting to take a photo and write something for you (actually, from the very start), and I was about to say that I don't know what took me so long. But to be honest that would be the easy way out. For the past years you have inspired me so much, that I simply felt like to be able to do you and your work justice, I needed to create something epic, something that would so undoubtedly represent you and who you are to me. Little did I know that the idea would just come around on a late Wednesday afternoon, one day before your birthday, and long after I'd last thought about it. I feel like the process of creating this photo was a little like your view on and mixture of old and new photos. I have always been hesitant when it comes to using older photos, for the simple reason that they, and everything they contained, felt so far away already. But yesterday I noticed that in terms of photographs, the past might indeed be able to change, being predestined for it even, and that is something I quietly learned from you along the way. The combination of these photos, the one I took of you on our day together in Munich, and the one of me in that kind of fog I have never experienced before, feels so much like you that I have a hard time believing that it's me who took them in the first place.
I want you to know that I was never really able to put into words what our friendship means to me. We went from messages to skype calls, to real meetups, to being in the same photo, to more messages with more understanding, to comfort and support, to us as we are.
I often catch myself telling people about that amazing friend of mine, because you keep surprising me with your creativity and ideas. And I'm not just saying that, about half of my circle of friends knows who you are. Your photostream is and forever will be the first I check when I haven't been on the internet for a while, or even in the morning when I spent the whole night on the computer. Your photos speak to me, and I don't ever want to stop communicating with your beautiful soul. For me, you are the dancer in the photography world, the one that always stands out, the one that does things I am too afraid to try. I feel like there is so much more to say, and yet I have no idea how to actually express all of it, so I'll just leave it at that for the moment.
You cannot imagine how much I always wish for you to be okay, and how glad I am therefore to see you happy. I think I don't even have to say that I hope you're having a lovely day today, but I do wish you a wondeful birthday spent with people who make you smile.

Thank you for being in my life,
Rona


(It's *LauraZalenga's birthday today and this is for her.)