Photography is really an amazing thing. It’s a life style more than anything and the camera is the tool used to live out that life style.
Photography is a beautiful thing. It makes precious moments last forever and freezes this moment in time that cant possibly be measured.
Photography is a privilege. It is a privilege that I am able to photograph people, but it is also my responsibility to tell their story and learn from them opening themselves up to me by letting me take their photograph.
Photography is a social thing. It allows me to connect with people I wouldn’t have otherwise and make a real human connection with them.
I learned this last point yesterday at 2am (I guess that was actually today) last night.
On Saturday, I had the opportunity to hang out with my friend Darius and a bunch of middle school kids (about 15). We took them to a huge trampoline warehouse so they could just go crazy! There was a trapeze that landed in a foam block bit, various challenges featured in the Ninja Warrior TV show that’s really popular, and basketball goals with trampolines underneath them so that the kids would be able to dunk. It was crazy.
We went for an hour and by the end I was hungry and worn out, but the kids wanted to eat something, so we took them to McDonalds (Cancer City as I call it) and there I got to take some pictures of a couple of the kids and sit down and talk to them (a few of them will be featured in my “Who Are You?” project). Now, at this point I was a zombie walking and had no energy left in me, but still had to take six guys to a Pelicans game.
I decided that I needed a small break to recover my sanity and went to go eat by myself. That lasted about an hour before I had to be on the move again.
I hopped back into my car, drove home to get a jacket and change out of shorts (I assumed the stadium was going to be chilly) and went to meet up with Darius and the six middle school guys to go to the basketball game. It started at 6pm, ended at 8:30pm, and it was on to the next thing: a small little Q & A with a few of the Pelicans players. This ended at about 10pm and we began to take the guys home. I thought this was going to be the end of the night and that I was finally going to be able to get some sleep, but it wasn’t.
The guys wanted to eat at Sonic before the final trek home. This pushed our drop off times back even more. Darius and I didn’t finish dropping everyone off until midnight and it was at this moment that we went to Waffle House to eat ourselves. This is where I learned that last point. That “photography is a social thing.”
Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking “how come you had to tell us your life story?” I wanted to tell you this to give you perspective. Just think how long that day was. I was awake for 14 hours and moving around nonstop. It’s entirely possible that I could have just dreamed the whole thing because I was so tired. But, despite all of this, I believe that my fatigue let me see the true happiness a picture can bring to a group of people.
I want to look at the first image again. The woman closest to the middle with the scarf saw my camera and asked if I was a photographer. I told her that I was and she asked me to take a picture of her and her staff. Every smile was real and it touched my soul.
I was sad and tired that moment and I just wanted to go home and get some sleep after I ate. This moment made me happy and I do not entirely understand why I love this moment so much, I just do. I guess it would because of the realization that I can actually make an impact on people with photography and that gives me hope in what I am trying to do. The woman’s rawness in her emotion humbled me and made me see that I may be cynical to people, but it is impossible to be cynical towards the emotions elicited by those people.
The Ether Place 