I have never been very in the know. From current events to top 40 charts to obscure holidays, which apparently celebrate a plethora of things, from applesauce cake to aviation. Perhaps because I was raised in a small country bubble where late night conversations with friends were from a landline. (All of which I reminisce of fondly, mind you.) So it is no wonder that I only discovered today that August 19th marks World Photography Day, and only because I received a newsletter from Creative Live, (side note: an incredible platform for learning all forms of artisanal skills) that graced my inbox moments ago with the heading “Happy World Photo Day.” Honestly, the fact that I found out on the day itself feels rather notable. My mom’s birthday is in two days and I still have her birthday card sitting on our dining room table. I love you, Mom!
What is World Photography Day you ask? I was wondering the same, and so did some easy digging. Noted simply as being a day that celebrates the art, craft, science, and history of photography. I even found this nifty “ways to observe this day” list. Shall we?
Learn about photography and the skills it takes to be a photographer.
Talk to a photographer and find out why they enjoy their profession.
Get family photos taken by a professional photographer.
Read about famous photographers including Robert Frank, Ansel Adams, Anne Geddes, and David Bailey.
Go to your local bookstore and peruse the photography books.
Commit to taking a photography course.
As someone who has decided to take seriously my profession as a photographer this last year, I have delved into this list outside of what any random celebration might suggest, and need to intentionally continue on this trajectory so long as my heart for photography lives on.
Though like any story, there begins a starting point, and so I thought I might share my photography story with you.
The starting place for my love of photography is actually hard for me to pin point. Perhaps it started as a young kid, as made obvious by the dozens of photo albums that I studiously filled and still have hanging out in my garage. I can still recall carefully sealing up the film from my Kodak camera and dropping it in Kmart’s photo section in the back of the store. How anxious I was for pick up day! Or maybe it was the great lengths I took to tell our wedding photographer exactly what I wanted him to take pictures of, which I am sure he was oh so thankful for, and realizing that we had hired someone whose style was more in the tradition of posed shots and less in the storytelling, a difference that I hadn’t otherwise even made note of. Or perhaps it was when a gentlemen from our church heard that we were going to tour the country as a husband and wife acoustic duo and he lent me his Canon Rebel T3i – my first interaction with a DSLR camera. Hundreds, if not thousands of photographs documented our days on the road and I found myself drawn to what moments I could capture and share with others. So there we were, in the basement of my mother-in-laws basement, and I answered in part the question “What now?”by asking a few families to allow me to set up a photography session and see what the result would be. They loved it. I loved it. The end.
Okay well not exactly the end. Rather very much the beginning. After five years of very casually setting up sessions for friends and offering up a few holiday minis, I have decided to indulge this passion just a bit more. A passion to capture the moments that pass us by, not because children grow up too quickly or so that we can look back on the good ‘ol days with more fondness than the present, but so we can remember that joy comes in the moment, when you stop long enough to focus on who is in front of you. When you hold your children close enough to breathe them in. When you embrace your husband long enough to feel the stillness and safety of his arms. When you gaze at your wife in awe of the strength that she has summoned. Photographs may well illuminate the past, but may they help us remember that you have been given today.
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Now granted, these words were penned just a short year ago, as they sit permanently on my website as a way to share myself with any that might like to invite me to capture their family through pictures.
Although in reading them back, I find myself needing to craft an addendum, for time has a way of teaching us those things of value that we hadn’t yet known how to discover.
Observing the world during this pandemic seemed to perpetuate what we perhaps already knew. Just as Instagram serves as a way to disguise our imperfections, lives lived outside of the home served as a way to dismiss our relationships. Parents found that they were unfamiliar with their children, and spouses unfamiliar with their lovers. Our dependency on materialism for contentment was brought to light, along with the need for a few good glasses of wine. We found ways to self medicate, often with the woes of others, and felt relieved that our children exasperated us just as much as theirs did our fellow neighbors… or lifestyle bloggers. We were forced to see our weaknesses, and it was left up to us to determine if that is truly what they were.
Then there comes photography. Or really, let’s just start with photographs, because photographs are everywhere.
We continue to use photographs to showcase the way in which we would like to see ourselves, and in the way we hope others see us. Anything contrary to such serene moments are not offered as modest reflections, but instead used as a way to relish in each other’s woes, championed with a “you got this mama”, requiring strength and stamina over humility.
We use photography to make us feel better about the fact that our children misbehave, our spouses get angry, and we struggle with patience, when instead the art of photography has this profound ability to reflect how we are learning, and the beauty that comes when you give yourself to growth.
When I engage in a photography session, I do not want to provide a family with a gallery of images that feel foreign to the intimacy and vulnerability of these relationships in their home. Now granted, nor will I deliver a photograph of their three year old having a temper tantrum. The opposite ideal of highlighting imperfections is not the point.
Rather, those moments that are captured with the lens should be the means by which we capture the overflow of a life lived in engaging the eyes, in warm embraces, and in undistracted attention, so that when you do see your images, you see yourself, and you are humbled that amidst all that you are learning as a parent, as a child, as a spouse, you have these moments to serve as a reminder of your being held up in grace and loved without condition.
That same article I mentioned “encourag[ed] photographers from around the globe to share a single photo that encapsulates their world.”
And may every photograph after.
It’s world photography day. Cheers.
*driving through the mountains of Montana, where my photography journey found its way