One month and counting....

Today is the last day of January and I am one month into this project with eleven to go. Wow has it been a journey! I have to thank everyone for your incredible support along this process. I have heard from so many people who are very touched by this process and my experiences and perceptions. Today I just need to reflect. It feels like my world is spinning around so quickly and I am caught in it’s centrifugal force. It has grown far beyond my expectations. I felt like I hit a tipping point this weekend where some 250 people Sunday examined what I am doing on this project with a total of 2639 visitors and counting for a month? I am finding the key is networking and I have mostly been using Facebook for that connection. I had so many people sending me messages that I could hardly keep up with it because I want to chat with everyone. There are so many people from all the various aspects of my life that I have not heard from or seen in decades suddenly before me. It was a joy to communicate with so many people, but I spent the better part of Sunday just responding and reading profiles and reliving so many memories. The best part is I have five subjects lined up who want to work with me on images this week. In a sense I feel vibrant and alive with enthusiasm and the creativity is swelling deep within me. I was utterly exhausted by the end of the night when I crawled into bed and began to realize I need to begin to set some boundaries for myself. I can see where it would be easy to be swept away by the momentum of a site like Facebook. I need to find my center and begin to set priorities in order to achieve such an ambitions goal. I still have been keeping up with all my other work and shooting projects, but it is the creation of art and this writing that needs to become my anchor. Though I know the networking is a big part of the picture it really comes down to the process. This is where I started and this is where I need to keep my eye on the target, it’s about the connection to the subject and paramount the journey back into myself. This morning I also got back to my daily P90X workout routine which I have been missing for the past few weeks. It feels like life now becomes about time. I have always been an over achiever and a workaholic and don’t do anything small. It feels like life is too small and we must grab all that we can while it lasts, make every moment count and filled with meaning.

I am learning so much about myself through this process and am settling into a place of peace and contentment that I have never known. Especially to be forced to examine one’s body of images and know what joy and understanding it brings to so many people I have touched. To say “a picture is worth a thousand words” is not worthy of it’s praise, it’s beyond description, it is a historical record that we lived, loved, desired, and felt life so deeply. I see my senior portrait hanging in the living room every time I go home and remember that youth and contemplate how far I have journeyed since that last moment of innocence. Pictures are a record of how we lived our lives and the humanity from which we come. No wonder every one is addicted to taking so many images of their experiences.

My friend Chris Dade summed it up best so I am going to share a letter he sent me in regards to finding oneself as an artist: “With regards to the question I think with photography your personality is reflected in your work so it is something you are born with but also the more you explore it the more it evolves and develops. For me my art is about finding some truth or knowledge by recording it and thus understanding it. I use my camera like a diary to make sense of the world. I love nudes as they are so intimate and I think can real something really personal. I love intimacy, I think its inspiring, for me this type of honesty is my air! Most of my models are either friends or lovers and this is important in order to capture something intimate. And when I am successful in this I think it is something really special to share with the viewer.” Chris is a remarkable photographer and writer who cuts to the core of his existence by combing both image and extraordinary text. Chris lives in Brighton UK, is a Buddhist, traveler, philosopher and today’s inspiration for me to find my center again.

VIEW FULL IMAGE: TRAVIS E #177