Keep the celebrations going…
Most of us have been locked indoors for months now in an attempt to keep the coronavirus outside our homes. Many of our most cherished rites of passage have been put on hold. Graduations, weddings, backyard BBQs. As the numbers of infections dropped, many states began to loosen restrictions and we dared to venture outside into the sunshine again. Then Minneapolis police killed a man named George Floyd by pinning him to the ground during an arrest, and all hell broke loose in Minneapolis and around the world. It’s hard to celebrate a birth or a life passing away when confronted with our inhumanity to our fellow man.
We all have light and dark sides. It’s the portrait photographer’s role to show them off in an honest and respectful way. A high school graduation session is all about the promise that lies ahead as our subject stands on the transom. We find ways to illustrate both the accomplishment completed and those yet to come. These photos are light, airy. If we are photographing a memorial we seek to pay homage to the life that passed, noting the bad without dwelling on it, and savoring the good that came of the person’s life.
In both celebrating and mourning, and in every milestone in between, we must remember that nothing is permanent. Photogaphs can help memorialize those events. Images that today document an event or a mood will be viewed many years hence with a different perspective, marking a waypoint on our becoming. Don’t let that slip away unnoticed.. Continue to celebrate your life and the lives of those around you, in good times and in bad.
I hope you will let me be a part of that journey.
