Welcome to the new blog!! Where photographic stories are told in detail and come alive through multiple images and words.
You know when you hear a song or look at some form of art or even read a book, it’s nice to know what the author has to say about what they created. Some artists do not include an artists statement so there I am left hanging with a big question mark drifting in my mind, walking away with a box full of questions. Than there are those super nice artists who include their reasoning, their point, where the heck they were when they wrote their song or book. And it’s like why thank you sir now I can fully understand and receive your creation with the knowledge of why.
WHY DOES WHY MATTER ANYWAY?
CAUSE IT JUST DOES. Okay I understand that is a lame response to a question so existential. We are all spinning around in the universe, at a very high pace let me might add, unknown of our futures yet we all are living on little tiny earth and I care what people think of me if I don’t live up to their expectations. And therefore my question is WHY. Why to any of it.
Why to the fact that I photograph a day where two people are joined together in a sacred ceremony through a tradition humans have done for thousands of years?
Why do I enjoy joy so much?
Why does it matter what type of flowers the couple chooses to decorate this once in a lifetime kind of day, to the song they dance to first, to their rings they pick out for each other?
Why does any of it matter?
I don’t think I have a definite answer that is beautiful and come to Jesus kind of answer but what I can say is it does matter. Well because it all matters. Thousands of people, no billions, of people get married each day across the world. You and I will share a wedding day with billions of other people but there is no one like you. There is no one couple the same, no wedding the same, no individual heart the same. One may have a 5 day long celebration full with thousands of people covered in henna and jewels, others forced to be married due to status or politics yet they walk down the isle with hope and fear of the future, and still others will have no more than ten close family members with a simple ivory dress bought at goodwill and deep love while they read each others vows in the middle of the woods. And to that point- it all matters.
I am going to be honest, sometimes I doubt whether what I am doing is making a difference in the world. Isn’t that what most of us care about doing when we grow up? How will I change the world? How will I influence and leave a legacy like mother Theresa, Gandhi, or Abraham Lincoln? I grabble with these questions daily as I edit, send emails, and take photos. What I have settled with is I believe this very sacred ceremony, no matter what it looks like, is a unique human experience that deserves to be documented and gazed upon with found memories and tears in the eyes for decades to come even after those of the present will have passed to their next story.
Because whether you believe in heaven, nirvana, or reincarnation, it all matters, every human life and story matters. And that is why I love to do what I do. I feel like an historian, hoping one day people will look back on my photographs and be able to feel like they could be there, sitting in the front row, looking onto a love story that mattered.
