We can most certainly admit that while family photographs sound delightful, they come at an investment, and while I know an artist is well worth their value – or otherwise I would not attempt to continue to be one! – I also recognize that art becomes an expense we set aside as more a luxury than a necessity. Now mind you, if you are debating paying your ComEd bill or booking a family session, I would certainly advise keeping your electricity running (among other things!) even as much as I would love to photograph your family.
In our over saturated, picture obsessed world, it wouldn’t seem photographs are at all a luxury we are missing out on. In fact, I believe we have more images of our children and the food one our plate than is good for our well being. So it would seem to offer photographs, and attaching the professional label to them, would seem a contradiction on my part. Although here’s the thing. I don’t believe that the art I hope to share with you consists merely of upgraded photographs. A few classes and a good camera phone, and you can do a pretty good job on your own. Rather, one of my longings is to draw you out from behind the lens. Not merely to get your face in a picture, although for most mamas that holds plenty of merit. But to capture a moment where you rest in the beauty of your family rather than displaying to your future self that even though you were present, you were hidden behind the hope of holding on. Whether we take a photograph or not will not make the moment last any longer. And the photographs we take for the sake of sharing with others will only be a reminder of our misguided preoccupation with memory.
Photographs do indeed help us see the past, but they lose their beauty if taken at the expense of an altered present.
Okay, so while I would of course love to keep booking golden hour evenings with families, and while these words come paired with a nod to Petite Spring Sessions, I could by no means aim to pull you further along on our infatuation with images. They have been used to combat insecurity and to promote the self. They have given way to absense and distraction. Yet at their core, they remain a beautiful telling of story. One in which is best when lived, and deemed significant without attention. I would love to honor your story and let you then feel that you can simply live it.
