Creating A Collective
Let me take this moment to thank each of you for believing in this dream of mine.
I’m fascinated by this life. It’s enormous and overwhelming at times. This adventure we are on together- traveling through this continuum. I’m the type of person who needs a lot of time to process what’s happening to me and around me. When I had Gracen seven years ago I became obsessed with the theory of time. I needed to stop it, slow it, pause it- to make sense of her. Capture it as we go has become my motto. There’s always time for the things I have to do and rarely enough time for the things I want to do. So when it became time to go back to work after her birth, I decided that my life’s work had to combine a way to earn a living and make sense of what I was feeling. But really had none of you bought into this, I wouldn’t be living this life. The most vital part of my work is the people who share in it. In effect you have become my collective.
When I’m working with your families I have found that there is an exchange of energy. I do my best to bring positive, joy filled, calming energy to your homes. I hold your babies, and chat with your kids, and relate to your lives. Your impact on me is immediate. We leave these shared spaces and life keeps happening to you and your families. And the collective grows. Your stories inspire me, and feed me, and hurt me at times too; but you’ve given me a place to create.. and process… and pray… and dream… and wish… and let go.
In the time that I have been creating this circle of art and wonder, some of you have lost loved ones, many of you have lost pregnancies, and other of you have lost children. I have gotten text, and post, and messages, that have made me openly weep. I just want to take the painful part of your stories away from you. But I’m reminded that those painful moments are a part of you too and getting to know you means being there during the hard parts too. If I were to shoot your stories but not care about your lives then that wouldn’t make me an artist, it would make me someone who used you in a moment. And I’m a caring person, I get in too deep, I feel what you might be feeling, and I do my best not to shy away from it.
We have a finite amount of time in this place. My need to connect with people is immediate. When you bring me your stories this Collective grows. We create a synergy that connects us to one another and that synergy is what’s at the heart of Little Love Stories Photography & Films, and it’s also what’s at the heart of me.
Whatever your story is, I want to tell it. I am incredibly lucky to be living this life beside you. You guys are my people. Your story is adding to mine, and mine to yours, and ours to each others. The fabric is thick and ever growing. Your losses are felt. Your celebrations are remembered. Your love is enviable.
I’m proud of this Collective. I’m proud to know each of you. I’m proud to tell your stories and capture your lives and be apart of this masterpiece with you. And I just wanted to you know that. This is more then just pictures, this is life. We’re welcoming it in, we’re letting it go, and we’re living it together. I can not thank you enough for choosing me to share in it with you. And if you have a chance today consider that every gallery and image that I share with you has a deep story behind it. It’s not important the details but know that as beautiful as a moment can look it comes with all the complications of life behind it. But that’s the good stuff. That’s where the connection is.
