A first entry

I suppose I have to start somewhere. With these journal entries. This is my first in this place. So WELCOME! 

Being the first post and all, I thought I'd introduce myself. 

Only, how do you introduce yourself as a wedding and family photographer in your new photography journal? The only thought that kept cropping up in my head was: "I'm a word person."  And that may possibly not the best way for a photographer to create trust?!  Smart thinking, me!

But the words did come first.

I enjoyed the sound of them, tasted them, learned their meanings, played with them - the variety, the nuances. I felt them. Then came the combination of the words - into anecdotes and tales - short and long. I listened, marvelled at them, disappeared into them. Lived them.

I labelled myself as a verbal person. I was a person who wrote and spoke. I was not a visual person. So there.

I enjoy all kinds of narratives, but I have come to realise that I particularly like them beginning in medias res - in the midst of things - and ending... well not ending at all really. What was it that drew me to this kind of narrative? It took me a while, but then it dawned on me; I like narratives that paint a picture, like frozen moments of time - like snapshots.

And there it was. The visual aspect of the verbal.

And then I found photography, and I discovered that what attracted me to images was, more or less, exactly the same thing that drew me to the verbal narrative: the snippets of life, the snapshots of time. Frozen and framed with the beginning and end well outside the frame, just waiting for me to start imagining, thinking, fill in the blanks, visualising - creating.

So maybe it's time I redefined myself and created a new label for myself; I am both verbal and visual. And to encompass both the verbal and the visual, perhaps I should call myself a story person.

My only problem with this new label of mine, ironically enough, is the actual word story. Over the past years I feel it's been completely overused, to the point where it has become faded and flat, and has almost lost its meaning. I have avoided the word, and tried desperately to come up with a fresh meaningful synonym, but now,  starting this journal and introducing myself , perhaps it's time to admit (if not to anyone else than to myself); I am a story person.

Stories make me laugh and cry, stories give me energy and inspiration; stories are my teachers, entertainers, mirrors and maps.

So this journal then. Is it really a wedding and family photography journal? Well, we don’t have to label everything, do we? It’s a journal, and my aim in here is to post about the big and the small.

Words and images, thoughts and stories.

Wedding stories, family stories, life stories - co-created - I hope - with you.

So, please stick around. More to come.  And again: WELCOME! I’m happy you stopped by!

Xxx/å