Whenever I leave NY for the weekend I love staying at my brother's house. His house is somewhat secluded and is just a short walking distance to a coffee shop, restaurants, and a biking trail. It's a place where I can shut off my mind and just walk and shoot pictures. There's less pressure here and whenever I visit my brothers it feels like I'm going home to my childhood house even though that house is no longer ours. I'm grateful for family time and in the simplest way possible I like taking photos of these times. When your taking photos it's easy to feel like you are not present not apart of the moment but when I'm home it never feels that way.
It feels like I'm in between my work and personal life and that grey area is a place I'm happy to sit in.
If you're into any art whether that's photos or painting, or recording sound etc. I would try to mix it in with your family time.
Some of the most powerful work I've ever seen has been of people's friends (ex. Ryan Mcginely, Nan Golden) and families Christopher Anderson, and a friend of mine Jimmy O'donnell who photographed the last days of his father's life dying of cancer in his families living room.
These photos touched me not only because he had the composure to photograph this tragic event but because he kept shooting after his father passed. The one image that touched me the most was his sisters and his mother crying at the funeral.
Imagine the looks you'd get shooting photos at a funeral?
Yet he didn't care because this was his family and his passion and those images will live in my head for the rest of my life because of how they touched me.
There are also more subtle ways to photograph your personal life like Christopher Anderson's work. It's hard to justify using words to describe someone's images because words do them no justice but some of his photo books on his family usually show his family in beautiful natural light.
They usually depict the mundane and the often overlooked parts of life that are the beautiful things we remember in the end.
My last example here which is a totally different angle is Ryan Pfluger.
His relationship with his father was complicated as a young adult so he decided to photograph himself with his father.
From what I've read on this project Ryan was taking these photographs to reconstruct his relationship with his father.
https://cargocollective.com/ryanpfluger/Not-Without-My-Father
If you're looking for inspiration for your creations you're missing it.
It's all around you in the people you spend the most time with or in the things you love doing most.
