With over a decade of photographing “the biggest day” of people’s lives, I’ve come to a realization: maybe we spend too much energy on the big, or rather, not quite enough on the small. Those small days, the every days, the ones that feel like yesterday and resemble tomorrow... those are what we’ll call Life when all is said and done. Those are the days that feel endless, or go by in a blink, but mostly those small days are what we’re most likely to lose with time.
A Day in The Life is exactly that. A small, simple, regular ole day. With me and my camera, capturing all the bigness or smallness of it. There may be ease or struggle, laughter or tears. In my experience as a parent, (and a human) there will likely be all of these, and it’s all very much worth remembering.
They often come with a set of expectations: matching outfits, random parks, posing kids who’d rather be playing, and to be completely honest, it never really interested me. Sure, these photos have a time and place, and are valuable in their own way. Still, I always felt like I was missing the mark. What was I there to photograph exactly? While I love an interesting portrait, I am a documentary photographer. Instead of photographing little Sally trying to tie her own shoes, we were rushing her, glueing faces into a smile, and recovering from the work of trying to look perfect. It wasn’t the story that was happening, or an accurate portrayal of that moment in time.
As a photographer, I want to make time stand still, turn an everyday moment into art, letting people stop and slow down, remember what it was like to be there.
