there are many reasons my photographs look the way they do. it’s how i see the world, and it’s my vision behind every story that i tell through the photographs. one of these things is that i am a strong believer in the disappearing art of real photographs. it is a sad realization that we are in a time where sometimes the closest thing to a photo album a child/bride/family has….is on facebook. let me be clear that i am not judging, as i am just as guilty of facebook albums, or storing thousands of pictures online and never printing them, or even downloading them off the camera.

each and every time i shoot, my hope is that these images will mean something much greater someday than we even can realize now. i have entire albums from when i was a child- old yellow plastic covered pictures of me and my brother being goofy. of us naked in a bathtub. of my mom at the hospital after giving birth. there are old black and whites of grandparents, and generations of weddings. these are real photographs. you can feel the old paper, smell the years behind them, and hold in your hand a piece of that history. this is why i believe in the art of paper. nothing can ever replace that feeling. that genuine sweet goodness of having something real and physical to remember your memories with. no ipad, no DVD of images, no online album can ever replicate that.

we are in a digital era where everyone just wants the dvd of images. i get it, i understand it (i wanted it too). but i also have started to resent it. because very quickly i learned that, more often than not, the DVD just sits there. that album you swear you were going to make never happens, the pictures you were going to print yourself are forgotten, and you are left with a pice of plastic that in 5 yrs will probably be an outdated piece of technology anyways.

you don’t have to have the most expensive prints or the fanciest album to remember your story. just have something, anything that someday you can share with your grandkids around the coffee table and laugh, smile and cry at. the art of paper my friends :)