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Marilyn,
Excellent question and I also thank you for asking
it.
For me photography is a means of being. It is
greater than seeing, it is a way of experiencing life. To look longer and deeper
and more thoughtfully has not only made me a good photographer, it has made me a
better person because those skills are carried to all aspects of what I do. It
slows me down and makes me think.
Photography, because I do so much portrait work, is
a means of living on. I take a photograph of a child at their one year
birthday. That child is captured and given to the parents forever. And that
child is given to herself when she is old enough to look at
those photographs and realize, hey, that's what I looked like when I was
one. That portrait is then given to grandparents and aunts and uncles and my
work lives in homes and offices all across the country. That is a powerful gift
to be able to give.
Many years ago I used to think everyone looked at
things the same way I did and therefore they saw the same things I did and
therefore they could photograph the same way I do. That, obviously, is not true.
My vision, like every photographer's, is unique.
I am blessed to live in a time and place with
enough financial resources to explore my photography without much
hindrence. I often wonder what if I had been born into a third world country
with parents unable to encourage me in photography from a young age, where women
aren't encouraged to learn and advance, where money was very hard to come by.
Would I still have this yearning to shoot? Would I even know what photography
is? Where would my desire to create have taken me then?
Photography, for me, is a capturing and releasing
of time.
Lea
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