I’ve written here before that photography is the way I make my living, but more importantly it’s also the way I make visual notes about my life. While some people might use a pen and paper to keep written diaries or journals, I do the same with my camera.
It’s important to me that photography not just be something I do when someone is paying me. Like a musician or an athlete, I practice my photographic art nearly every day because that’s what one does to get better. It would be both boring and sad to become static and self-satisfied...to think “I’ve arrived,” and feel the creative journey is done.
When I began this blog three years and 300-plus posts ago, I had a vague personal guideline in mind that I mostly wanted to post pictures I’d done for myself, not for paying clients. Our commercially-oriented world seems to expect excellence when we are performing a task for money, but there’s rarely a tip-of-the-hat afforded to excellence for its own sake.
I’m happy to report that my own photographic journey is one where I freely wander back and forth over the blurry border between personal and professional image-making, between art and commerce. The energy I get from productivity in my everyday personal work makes me a better professional photographer. And many of the organizations and individuals who hire me for professional gigs happen to be such fine people that my “job” often feels like I'm creating art for a worthy community, rather than simply performing a task that will allow me to pay my bills.
The two pictures I’m posting today were done this week as a professional assignment for an organization that advocates on behalf of mothers and babies. This is the second year these folks have hired me and I’m pleased to be shooting for a group with such an admirable mission.
