SHOWING UP FOR THE goodbyes
Most people think of photography as something you pull out for the good moments. The birthday parties, the new babies, the graduations. And I love all of that. I truly do. There is so much beauty in the milestones that feel like celebrations.
But last year, I had an experience that reminded me why I picked up a camera in the first place.
A friend of a friend, one of my neighbors, had a house fire. By the time everything settled, the decision was made: the house would be demolished and rebuilt from the ground up. And before that happened, before the bulldozers came and the structure that held their family's life disappeared, I offered to come over and document it.
I wanted to photograph them saying goodbye to their home.
There is something that happens when a family walks through rooms they know by heart, knowing it's the last time. The light coming through a window you've looked out of a thousand times. A doorframe with pencil marks measuring how tall the kids had grown. The way a kitchen looks when it's yours, even when it's broken. These are not pretty things to photograph in the traditional sense. But they are so deeply human.
A house fire is a transformational event. It reorganizes everything about a family's life, their routines, their sense of home, their feeling of safety. And when you come out the other side of something like that and start to rebuild, both literally and emotionally, I think there is real value in having something to look back at. Not to relive the pain, but to honor the full story.
We put so much effort into documenting the happy chapters. And I am not saying we shouldn't. But what about the chapters that shape us just as much, maybe more?
This is the kind of work that makes me feel like photography is more than pretty pictures on a wall. It is a way of saying: your life matters, all of it, even the parts that were hard to live through.
To my neighbor and friend, thank you for trusting me with something so personal. It is a session I will never forget.
Documentary family photography is about truth, and sometimes truth is complicated. I believe it’s still worth holding onto.
If you are going through a major life change, whatever it looks like, I’d be honored to capture it.
Not just the joyful celebrations, but the tender, difficult, meaningful in-between. Reach out to hear more.
