Back to the Regularly Scheduled Programming...
1/27/25
So over the last year, I’d been really focused on organizing my work, for business and personal purposes. As a street photographer, my scenes can include a myriad of subjects, depending on the environment, so in terms of filing, I’d been using dates instead of subjects — which doesn’t really help when you are looking for a particular subject, (but it’s still better than no organization). Now when I go back through to look for images, I save myself time in the future by using color tags to denote favorited pics…And this is just describing the first ten years of images. Now, I’m tasked with backing up my phone pics from the last 5 years. These phones fill up fast, and as you upgrade your devices you may hit a point where you realize that you have years of pics that aren’t backed up anywhere but your phone or the “cloud”. In my case, my 5 year old daughter’s entire life is on my phone…
So that has been (and still is) a part of my daily task. Once all the work is organized then it will be easier to see the groupings that can be created, (paying attention to recurring themes and subject matter) in preparation for gallery collections to published books. Even though I have certain subjects that I focus on, after doing this for 15 years, going back and seeing themes, unknowingly develop is the most magical part about creating (anything) — How we are compelled to do the things that we are passionate about and the ways in which we are moved to articulate certain messages through various expressions is truly divine. My current series is a great example. In hindsight, I realized that in all my art (photography and music), I had a certain point of view long before I had the language (tools) to articulate it— some things I couldn’t explain through plain speech, but writing lyrics to music, or having an image to accompany written words, can be a game changer. Presentation matters
While organizing this batch, I identified more work that fit the scope of my current ongoing series, INTERSECTION. I also realized how much I need to continue with my Daily Operation posts, as I’ve built up a nice stash since sharing last.
If you’re reading this, I appreciate you. Writing has become more of a daily exercise, so I’ve given myself several places to workout (irl & virtual: substack), only to motivate me to write here more…lol (and so this blog space doesn’t turn into my personal diary!). Even though this is my space, away from the madness, I still wanted to curate it with some intention and balance — creating content and conversations using Photography as a tool, as well as a vehicle to explore life. As a photographer I’ve come to realize the importance of documenting life — that in a picture, you can capture a moment forever. Often times we don’t realize the importance of the simple moments until we experience life’s fragility— as a caregiver, I’m reminded of this every day. Last year, my mom was diagnosed with Dementia. And while she is still very physically healthy, there are moments that she will never be able to remember… So now I really am an advocate of taking pics whenever and of whatever brings you joy. I’m really going to be leaning into this mindset over the next four years with the current state of the world.
As a society, as far as we have come, seemingly isn’t that far from where we were. They say things happen in cycles, so I guess some of us forget what we experienced the last time this happened, and honestly what some of us have always experienced. To say things could be a lot worse doesn’t even fit this situation, when after the first week of developments, I’m not very optimistic about the tone being set with these policy changes. The cover photo for this post pretty much sums up what they have always fought against. No matter how much they try to rewrite history, we must continue to live unapologetically and document our joy for the generations to come. In the words of Public Enemy, “Don’t believe the hype!”
Enjoy these vids and if you haven’t already, check out INTERSECTION!