How did I end up here? (the not so short story I wrote last year for Art Fair Insiders)

I learned to use a camera and work in the darkroom as I was learning to write in cursive and ride a bicycle, and I have been on a photographic journey ever since. Looking through the lens shapes my life and experience of the world. My art, my camera, and my life are inextricable – I am fortunate.

Prior to my professional life, my focus was almost solely on my experience from behind the camera, but as I began working in commercial photography and then in film, I realized the true power the medium could have to influence (manipulate?) the viewer. During this time, I played many roles and the work was wide ranging, from photographing hamburgers for a national fast food chain, or arranging flowers for greeting card covers, to scouting filming locations for shoe store commercials. I loved the day-to-day challenges and problem solving of the field, but the goals of my clients, the advertisers, didn’t fit with my personal values. I was using my craft to sell people goods that were bad for them, the community, and the environment. I was so disheartened by this I almost put my camera down for good. Continue reading »