TIME SLOWS WHEN YOU JUST LIVE.
If I could go back and tell myself something about life and photography, it’d be this:
TIME SLOWS WHEN YOU JUST LIVE.
Foggy BTT, 2022
Early on, I didn’t know the power of the recorded image. I only wanted to take pretty pictures. Eventually though I began to wonder if that all there was to it. There had to be something more to photography. I thought for a long time and reached a conclusion.
Eye Scope, 2021
I wanted proof that I was there experiencing the world with everyone else. It was my priority to record and enjoy the Now.
I can’t remember when it all started to click. That I was “good” at photography. It just sort of happened. Each day or night I would set out to shoot, somehow I had to convince myself that my life was just as interesting as everyone else’s. I hadn’t considered it at the time, but there were definitely some unique subjects around me.
There was the New Orleans film industry from 2019-2022. The surreal cataclysmic Covid-19 pandemic and my need to make money during it by driving Uber Eats. There was me and my family braving the harsh conditions of Hurricane Ida over the course of three days. Fate introducing my fiancée to me through a spur of the moment photoshoot. That time I worked alongside my photography mentor in West and East Louisiana for a few weeks. That brief time when I started a photography collective with a good friend of mine and participated in some art gallery shows. My lonely, liminal space days as a night worker at The Home Depot. My many travels: Honolulu Hawaii, West Louisiana, the Mississippi coast, Orange Beach Alabama, Key West Florida. My ongoing work-life as a barback at a popular hotel in New Orleans. And my move to the Westbank.
So much has happened within three years and through it all I lost track of time. At each stage in my journey it felt like these moments were happening forever. I took them for what they were and rode the wave. I recorded to prove I was there, and now that so much time has gone by I can sit down and search for the hidden meanings in my photographs.
What’s really going on?
I don’t have a definite answer. But what I do know is that I’m doing something right. With each photograph I’ve taken, I feel that I am getting closer to reaching what was meant for me. I try my best to not think too hard about life and its complexities.
And something I’ve observed that my mother, favorite artists, and most Louisianians have is the courage to just let it be. It is a way of life that only the most liberated have. Whether it’s through food, work, love, or art, they find a way to include it in their everyday lives.
It’s the hardest philosophy to follow, but I can understand why it works. I’ll continue enjoying the Now and recording what I saw.
It’s the only way to slow down time. Yesterday is over. Tomorrow isn’t here. But Today is.
My Queen Shopping, 2023
