Starting to Look Back on the Archives

Times are a changing, and acceptance and adaptation is tough. I imagine it will only get more difficult as we get farther in to quarantine and all that life brings with it moving forward. Sadly I’ve had to cancel a whole lot of work because of the virus - I’ve cancelled my April San Francisco trip which was full of wonderful San Francisco dog photography clients. I’ve also cancelled a big month long road trip for a personal project I’ve been developing for the past few months, and that’s been such a bummer.

However, for my own sanity (and to lead by example for my Dog Photography Mentoring Students) I need to do my best to not be static. I need to move through this grief and stress and fear and unknown the best I can. For that reason, I’m giving myself the large creative project of diving deep into my oldest photography portfolios and sharing that work with the world online. I’ll be including my favorite portraits from the very beginning of my dog photography career, as well as personal work and Polaroids. Each image will be accompanied with the story behind it, and I’ll be offering selections of this work for sale on my website. Surviving the coronavirus mentally and physically and economically and spiritually is going to be a long, long road. But I’m glad I’ve got a great community to accompany me, and vice versa.

This week I finally got my *beloved* (the classy Epson V700 scanner that I’ve been using for the past 15 years) all set up in my new home office/sunny corner in my house by a big window. This will be an important creative outlet for the next few weeks, as New Mexico is currently in ‘shelter in place’ starting tomorrow. I haven’t opened these old portfolios (and surprisingly heavy camera case full of photos) for years honestly. These hold ancient Polaroids and negatives from the good old years- college friends, my first photo class assignments at San Francisco City College, the very beginnings of my dog photography career. Feeling a little emotional with the state of the world, acknowledging my powerlessness and leaning into the one thing that has always healed my heart, making photographs. Will start posting these relics soon. Stay safe, stay inside, redefine your understanding of expectations. Hashtag am I right?