Eyes to the Wind
I missed a post last week. I wish I could say it was simply becuase of Thanksgiving and the chaos of traveling for the holidays, but truthfully I needed to take some time to collect myself. It’s a good problem to have, to be constantly making things and to have a massive backlog of photos to go through, but as someone who is continually learning to slow down and enjoy the process I needed some time to play catch-up with myself.
I spent Thanksgiving this last week in Missouri to visit some extended family. Along with me I brought a camera and a book entitled Rules for a Knight, a collection of letters containing sage wisdom from a great knight in feudal Europe several lifetimes ago.
I like to call my approach to photography journalistic, but lately I’ve been considering a new word to describe myself: Observational. I very much enjoy spending time with people, my relationships with others enrich my life. That being said, when I have a camera in my hands I often prefer to capture life unmolested and unpoised; a fly on the wall.
One of the many tenents in the Rules for a Knight book speaks on the vlaue of solitude- “When seeking the wisdom and clarity of your own mind, silence is a helpful tool... Just as it is impossible to see your reflection in troubled water, so too is it with the soul. In silence, we can sense eternity sleeping inside us.”
In addition to the insight provided by this book, I was also lucky enough to get some quality time with my Grandparents. This was the first time in a few years that I had the opportunity to be with them and I wasn’t about to take a moment for granted. My grandfather has dedicated much of his life collecting old photographs, something I am very interested in as well. He shared with me many memories and stories that I had never heard before. He shared vignettes of his life, my father’s, and many other quiet moments throughout our family’s lives. Looking through all of these moments preserved and remembered, I reconnected with what photography came to mean to me in the first place, simply seeing and feeling.
So with that, I wanted to share a small snapshot of what these last few weeks have been for me, a time for reservation and preservation. I’d like to rethink the role of a photographer as a watcher, a keeper of time and memory.
Until Next week.
