Reclaiming Family

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

Worldwide | Friday, October 15, 2010 | 5 photos

Too often, I run around on the surface of my life, worrying about smaller details, when a larger “picture” can help me tap into joy and an inner confidence that I can know what is really important. With that bigger picture, I, and we humans, can creatively solve problems that face us. Photography can call us back to the bigger picture.

There are so many gaps in my knowledge, and I long for a mentor. All trial and error doesn’t get it! I’m hungry for a community of photographers who share a related vision. I want to go to Bhutan and be coached in seeing nature and culture the way that National Geographic sees. I want to go especially to Bhutan, a country that actively values “gross national happiness,” and experience there the intimacy with life that I experience when looking through the lens.

I’m working to make photography both a gift and a part of my livelihood. Currently, I’m beginning a photographic essay of cancer survivors who are once again in love with life. The essay will encourage newly diagnosed women as they face a deep uncertainty. A year and a half ago, I experienced the same fear that they encounter now. I was lucky to find a tiny tumor very early; I’m thriving (fit for trekking!) and back in touch with joy.

These images come from a project to offer family pictures to parents and children at the Multiple Assistance Center (the MAC), a place where families who have lost their homes can receive training and support while they work to get their balance back. These five families, through their faces, body language and relationships, have agreed to tell you a story about a place called the MAC.

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