Thank you, Miguel Garcia-Guzman

This post from Miguel Garcia-Guzman's blog Exposure Compensation made me very happy today. My body of work "Life is a series of small moments" (which you can see on my website) is deeply personal on many levels, and I've struggled with wondering if somehow recording the intimacy of my family's daily existence is somehow, well...selfish. That may sound strange, but when you create very personal work there's the hope that you're touching people on a wider level, and the fear that you're not. Garcia-Guzman writes: "...each of us perhaps should be more involved in developing a photographic project that captures our own life, our own people, our own families, and our own objects so we can use the language of photography to write the visual memory of our footprint in life." 

Aaah. Suddenly I felt comforted. Here is a call to create the kind of work I'm creating. I think a lot about recognition and legitimacy, and it's something I struggle with. No artist, as far as know, creates in a bubble. We do it for ourselves, but also as a way to share our vision. And while I too ultimately make the work because I'm driven by an almost uncontrollable need to create, sometimes it helps to have someone say that your subject matter means something. Besides, I just love that line "the visual memory of our footprint in life." Selfish? That's my own crazymaking brain chattering, and Garcia-Guzman just quieted me down. Oh, and he was specifically referencing the amazing photographer Martine Fougeron. You can see her work here. (Aren't her boys beautiful?)