i photographed ramona gonzalez of nite jewel, at her home in mount washington on a day in august when my car’s thermostat read 108 degrees. ramona makes complex, ethereal, richly layered songs that are somewhat hypnotic even though my personal tastes run to the more traditional. while i am rarely personally inspired (or uninhibited enough) to groove, i can appreciate when it’s done well. i wanted to take a wide shot of her bedroom which was messy in a really beautiful way but ramona nixed it, saying that her mother would be absolutely mortified if she saw the state of things in there. we used the living room instead.