“Morning is when I’m awake and there is dawn in me.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
Creative photography—creating in general—is about light. Insight. Revealing and releasing what we see through the lenses of time and intentionality and listening.
I tell stories with words, have for years, and now with my camera. Visual, visceral, emotional, each novel and poem of an image is my voice speaking beyond me to what I do and don’t know of the world I experience.
What I hope I share with my students, both writing craft and photography, is how essential voice is to vision. Message, what we say and feel and are driven to say, is our individuality. Each moment and image and chapter and poem is a fresh chance to inspire and challenge and comfort.
Each viewer brings his or her needs and challenges and perspective. Our voice goes along for the ride; new life breathed into the message we share; others smiling, frowning, wondering, dreaming beyond us as they experience our contribution. What will they do; where will they journey next; does it matter; is it any of your business?
If we as artists do our job, we aren’t the beginning, nor the end. Our creating merges with the flow of all the light and shadow that came before and will go on forever, and for a time we contribute the unique color and curve and timber of our voice. Our echo becomes another’s call to join the chorus. The dawn moves on. We release our hold, to wait for the next inspiration.
We are not the beginning or the end. Others will follow.
But we must speak. What we say what is ours alone to create, with the voice we were born to add to the flow.
Each story, each moment, is a dawning.
Rise to that challenge, vulnerable and open and striving to connect, and this heaven on earth we call home will thrive with your offering.