Monday, November 23, 2009

on what is ours

ATP_0787
"Because secrets do not increase in value if kept in a gore-ian lockbox, because one's past is either made useful or else mutates and becomes cancerous. We share things for the obvious reasons: it makes us feel un-alone, it spreads the weight over a larger area, it holds the possibility of making our share lighter. And it can work either way - not simply as a pain-relief device, but, in the case of not bad news but good, as a share-the-happy-things-I've-seen/lessons-I've-learned vehicle. Or as a tool for simple connectivity for its own sake, a testing of waters, a stab at engagement with a mass of strangers."
- Dave Eggers from A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius


I, like you, don't know what I'm doing all the time.
I, like you, cannot see this life from every angle.
I don't know how to do what I do sometimes and often after I do it, I don't like it.
Sometimes I surprise myself with work that I didn't know was in me.
I cringe when I think of everything I don't know about life and other times I feel like I know all I should right now.

I don't want to be boxed up so tightly that life and joy are kept out of what I do. I don't want to take myself, or my work as a photographer so seriously that I am more photographer than human, more business owner than friend, more editor than listener. What is the point in that? Is that really what we should be spending our time moving towards? To produce rather than to create? Is that why I left the cubicle? I want to make images that reflect something of love, tragedy, brilliance, and irony. I want to listen. I want my images to reflect intangible interactions and a part of life that my clients don't even realize is already gone.

5 comments:

Andria said...

Beautiful post. And that quote - amazing. Thank you for sharing. I think your photography has been and will continue to be more than just images. You capture beautiful moments that inspire.

Kasi said...

Great post. Seriously wonderful.

Ashley said...

I like this. Thanks for sharing.

Melanie said...

Genius. Seriously. But I think that being aware of how little we know, how much of what we do is accident, and how much we still have to learn is the jumping off point to greatness.

abby said...

i love this post. it is so so true. i feel like that all the time. thanks for putting it so eloquently.