STANFIELD –

Senior Rachel Lemmon already cherishes the memories of last weekend’s prom – the glamour, her date’s great sense of humor, the teachers who broke loose during a couple of songs.

Now, those memories may become part of a book being compiled by a Canadian photographer.

Fashion photographer Tara Sgroi, 32, was at the Stanfield prom as part of a tour of the United States to collect images from proms for a book.

“It’s very cool that she was here,” Lemmon said. “Stanfield is a small school. No one knows where we’re at. But now, our name will be out there.”

Sgroi sent 300 letters to schools but received replies from just 10, she said. Stanfield actually called to accept her request.

Since April 3, she has attended proms in Nashville, San Francisco and Kansas.

In San Francisco a couple weeks ago, prom couples went bowling dressed in their tuxes and prom dresses. Sgroi was drawn to their late-night smiles and the memories they were creating.

“Geographically I assumed the proms would be different,” she said. “But society has made it so the music is the same, the dresses are the same. The difference is the kids and how much fun they’re having.”

The Canadian-born photographer studied at Nova Scotia College of Art & Design and Cooper Union in New York. She’s taken commercial studio photos for numerous fashion magazines and catalogs, including Glamour Magazine, Talbots, Nick Jr. Magazine, Food and Wine and Organic Style.

She also worked with author Frederic Fekkai on “A Year of Style,” her first book, published in 2000.

But the photo shoots for magazines and catalogs limited Sgroi’s creativity.

“They would last for a day, and I could never really do anything with them,” she said. “They were a poor snapshot of reality.”

Considering her interest in both sociology and fashion, prom seemed like the ideal subject.

“Prom is about how much fun it is for these kids, and the pressure, and how it’s the best night of their lives.”

Lemmon was too busy enjoying her prom to pay too much attention to what Sgroi was photographing, she said.

Sgroi plans to publish her images in a soft-cover book with a small introduction about her experience.

“Really, I have a project that I get to be a witness to something, a fly on the wall,” she said. “It’s so perfect.”