One week has passed since the Great North American Eclipse.
A week was enough to realize that Real Good Words™ aren’t coming to me. Most of us have seen better pictures and read better words than what you’ll find here, but I’ll try nonetheless.
For more than a decade now I’ve avoided sharing personal photo work. I suppose the self-imposed isolation is starting to come to an end because I find myself wanting to shoot, and wanting to share.
Like with most artistic pursuits, emotional complexity comes with the territory. For me, untangling my previous life as a professional has been painful. I’m deeply proud of the work I’ve done in my career – I’m also proud of the un-shown corporate work I’ve done over the last decade. I’m still using a camera almost weekly – but I still struggle to disconnect all this past work from a deeply painful, complicated, and ultimately traumatic time in my life.
Every photographer who is in the game long enough carries the weight of old work. We carry the weight of who they used to be, also. And some of the best damn photographers I’ve ever known are carrying the weight of trading in studios and cameras and gear for a life that provides for their families in a Post-Covid world. To love photography is to wrestle just as much with what’s inside us, as it is to fight for the images we see on the outside.
It’s hard stuff.
I’ve found that the eclipse matters to me in a way I didn’t expect. The eclipse is one of the few times in the last decade that I’ve felt giddy to see the photos I took. I’ve been working towards this point for half a year now. I want to shoot. I want to share. And I want to invite this passion back into my life, recognizing the past as the past, but mostly looking forward to new adventures.
It took an eclipse, a dear friend, and months of shooting away the uncomfortable emotions to force me to accept the idea that photography really isn’t done with me… and I suppose I’m not done with her.
If by any chance you are interested in purchasing a print of the eclipse, I’ve uploaded several prints to my online store. You can find those prints here.
