Samuel Zelalem James | Milwaukee Children’s Photography

Samuel was born in Ethiopia but found his family in Milwaukee. His huge dark eyes have surprising depth to them and when I met him on a cool but sunny fall morning this year they surveyed everything with interest and curiosity. Leaves and sticks were toys and a big field something to cross on sturdy little legs clad in jeans to match his dad’s. His presence is not a still one, but rather a miniature bundle of warm energy that darts from here to there and then laughs about it. His mother Maria and father Andrew are keeping up with him, guiding his routes and offering a destination when he runs in their direction. They hold his hands, ties his shoes and regard him with what seemed to me to be a tad bit of disbelief. He’s so full and fulfilling and just so big to be so little. I can see how his kind of toddler perfection would be hard to believe.

Samuel’s white cotton change of clothes is a traditional Ethiopian garment his parent’s brought back from Ethiopia for him to wear. They have another for him when he’s a bit bigger and I hope I’ll get to photograph him growing out of that one, too….

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