Reflections 2025
Welcome to "Reflections 2025," my online photo journal for sharing "sketches," works in progress, inspirations, and insights into my creative practice. I invite you to share your thoughts about these posts via my Contact Form.
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Volume 1: "Life's Work"
January 2025
I received the following invitation from Laurie Freitag, Director of the online photography platform L.A. Photo Curator.
"I have chosen you to be included in 21 Women Photographers: Life's Work, 2024. Please respond to the following questions that call to you. What is your Life's Work? What is the pull? What themes surface time and time again? Sometimes without consciously choosing, the work unfolds and what is revealed is powerful and universal. Why is this important? Because your expression has the power to shine a light on what others cannot express do you believe that your work can help others in their own journey? Do you feel more powerful as you age, finding greater freedom and strength in expressing yourself through your art? As you gain more life experience and confidence, does it empower you to break free from societal expectations, allowing your voice and vision to shine more boldly in your creative work?"
While I was honored to be invited, it was a bit daunting to reflect on my "Life's Work." What does that mean to me? Below is my response.
Life’s Work? That seems to imply some looking back and defining a legacy of sorts. I look at my creative path more like a labyrinth - a kind of circular journey of growth and discovery with lots of twists and turns. I developed a passion for both art and nature at a very young age. My original life “plan” was to teach art at the college level while pursuing my own studio practice. That was until I got in the classroom and realized very quickly that teaching was not for me. (big turn on the labyrinth at that point). Growing up in the “feminist era” of the 70s it was important to me to support myself and to be self-sufficient. Having studied filmmaking and video production in addition to various studio arts and darkroom photography, I found work in the motion picture and television industries and later in educational technology.
All the while I was photographing on the side - art was a secondary priority. My passion for nature and landscape continued and for many years that meant seeing what is “out there” - looking for the perfect light or mood, finding creative angles and compositions, applying in-camera techniques like slow-capture, or getting in close to show the abstract qualities in nature. As my career wound down and I had more time to devote to photography, my creative path shifted and I began to explore more of my “inner landscape” - what am I thinking, feeling, and experiencing in the environment and how can I express that in my work.
During this time I was learning more about climate change and witnessing the escalating drought and extreme weather events around me. My sense of climate anxiety was growing and my ongoing “Folding and Mending” series resulted. By drawing attention to our climate crisis, this work gives me a voice to advocate for our planet - to be a change agent. Working toward something larger than myself gives me a special sense of purpose that in turn, inspires my creative practice.
Getting back to the “Life’s Work” concept, I would say that the experiences from all the years and facets of my life (work, travel, family, friends, education, music, art, etc.) have contributed and led to the point where I am on the labyrinth. I don’t know what the next turn will bring, I just keep going forward. Certainly having traveled this far, I have gained confidence in myself and in my creative work. I suppose that is the foundation for freedom of expression.
21 Women Photographers: Life's Work, 2024 was published on January 1st. It is interesting to see how others put their creative journey into perspective. You can read them all at this link.
What do you think?
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