"Just as man discards of worn-out clothes and puts on new clothes, even so does the embodied soul discard worn-out bodies and accepts others that are new."
Hi there, welcome to my new home on the internet. If this was my doorstep, I imagine I would greet you with a warm hug, some sort of cooking utensil in hand and a stained apron, to a home full of music, laughter, delicious food and your choice of beverage. As I put the finishing touches on this meal, I'd probably ease you in with conversation about your day and we'd start to wander down a path where we explore the extraordinary in the ordinary and tease out inspirational musings. Alas, though we are at a distance and I cannot experience this with you as I wish to (yet), however, when we are both here together, I promise to use this space and time to write as I would speak with you (as though you are sitting across from me).
The last time I kept one of these diaries up, was chapters ago...you may have been there too. So much has happened since then. In the last 5 years I've lived in 4 countries, traveled to dozens more, picked up and parted with some long and short term company, supposedly mastered something, and settled (for now) in the 'city of magnificent distances'. Looking back, it remains to be the most thrilling game of Tetris I've played in while. I couldn't be more grateful for the ride and the experiences, but somewhere along the way, after I made the decision to go to Graduate School, it feels like everything moved warp speed. And although I had, for as long as I can remember, been accompanied by my constant sling back companion(s) to document the journey, we slowly found ourselves staring outside different windows, losing sight of why we were together, how we extended one another and where we were going in all of this.
Often we can, as an audience, but also as artists and reflectors, forget that affinities with the creative process - the limbs and branches which we chart to find the elusive "new" - require a certain degree of conscious choice. The journey isn't always effortless, power outages happen and the well is seldom 'bottomless' for prolonged periods. In fact, despite our most ideal desires, traveling pathways and forming these connections with ourselves can often feel like expecting the Colorado River to flow any other way than through the Grand Canyon. That's not to say it's futile, rather, that without appreciating the tried, tested and (so called) tired routes we can never be fully ready to see the space the new ones can take up or even make enough room for them to rush in.
Here and now, when it comes to my relationship with photography, with myself, I aim to do both. I hope you'll continue to join me, at the least for the 'food'. I promise to keep the experience eclectic for the universal explorer and curious wanderer in me, just as I hope to in you. Still, I am infinitely grateful for you coming over, no matter how frequent or how long. I know I'll see you again soon.....