The Courage to Tell it Like it is
Tuesday, December 30, 2008 by Guest Shutter Sister
Lucy like she is: eyes obscured for an entire season by her favorite blue hat
Whether we're writing or shooting, we are always telling our stories. There is so much we are trying to capture--how it is, but also the feeling or the experience of the moment. With all of our digital tricks and tools, I can't help but wonder if our idealism isn't sneaking in to tinker a bit, much like a writer using her words to defend herself, her point-of-view or position rather than lay herself bare.
And who among us does not at times crave a life that is sharper, a little more in focus? Or a love that sports a little color boost, an adventure with some ambient light or a moment with a soft blur around the edge? We're surrounded by media that whets the appetite of our ideals, and sometimes through our lenses and our software it seems the key is finally in hand--that our ideal life can come into being in our albums or on our websites, which conveniently leave out our bad moods and arguments and all the living that unfolds inside less-than-perfect lighting.
It takes courage to tell the story as it is, not as it could be. Many photo spreads in mainstream magazines look so exquisite because they don't have human beings in them to mar the scene. They portray a world above the fray of our messy humanity, something to which we can aspire because it seems divine. By following their lead, even with our small "improvements" like editing out blemishes and strategically cropping, which have become endemic in the photo world, are we chiseling away at our humanity? At the truth of our experience? Are we solidifying idealistic expectations for the next generation that bear little resemblance to the reality they will find?
I understand that there is the thing, and then there is the interpretation of the thing--and that much of our work lives in the realm of interpretation. But in honor of today's giveaway for a copy of Don't Write: A Reluctant Journal, I'd like to encourage you to shoot or write a piece of your story in a way that takes courage and a willingness to lay yourself bare. Just maybe you could tell it once, the way it really is, without your seductive little moves. You don't have to show anyone, you don't have to tell--but between you and the page, the journal, the photo archive, you would know the story.
Just the way it is.
Words, photograph and giveaway by Honorary Sister / Guest Blogger Jen Lee. Jen is a writer and spoken word artist in Brooklyn, NY. She is the author of Don't Write: A Reluctant Journal and Solstice: Stories of Light in the Dark.
Leave your comment here today for your chance to win a copy of Jen’s Book Don't Write: A Reluctant Journal.
Reader Comments (83)
I speak from from the sadness of losing my parents within two weeks of each other and yet finding that I am surrounded by more love than I could have ever wished for!!!!
Early morning.
No people.
Quiet.
http://www.marciescudderphotography.com/index.php?showimage=641
What I commented on yesterday's post can serve as an example for me, because it made me emberrased and I still wrote it as it was.
"...Once, I found on the floor a ticket from a library with the name of a book I wanted to read. I didn't ask anything to my husband, because I thought he bought it for me. But the time passed and he didn't give me the book for my birthday. So, I thought he bought it for someone else and didn't tell me (nothing creepy, just thought that he didn't want to tell me everything he did). But then, our anniversary came, and the book came to me too. It was for me after all! And he bought is so early thinking of our anniversary...
Here is a picture with that feeling for me:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliealvarez/3145672465/
I first thought that a bunch of dried dandelions didn't look well, until I left them on this glass. "
I took this picture trying to capture the ugliness of them, and it still turned out beautiful to me!
http://lifesignatures.wordpress.com/2008/12/29/high-on-mountain-dew/
http://secretagentmama.com/blog/2008/12/30/and-it-breaks-her-heart/
I have been vulnerable on my blog recently, earlier this year, in fact and I tell you, it was an amazing experience on so many levels. What I noticed was how powerful I truly was in a situation where so much was against me. Talk about kicking the ass out of a mountain, that is what I did. Second thing I noticed was all of the people who lurked on my blog commented and surrounded me like a circle of kindred spirits. One woman told me she had taken my posts to her women's church group and they prayed for me to overcome the trial that was upon me. Honestly, I knew then that no one and nothing could bring me down unless I allowed it to.
Now, I am not one for pity parties, but I do believe that showing you are human, real, feeling is a good thing. Always a good thing. Sometimes you have to be that way for someone else more than yourself. It's that whole connectedness thing.
here is some of my " messy humanity"... far from perfect... but....
http://www.photoblog.com/abbeyh13/2008/11/25/
Julie
Kath
maybe I should just do it...and stop worrying.
I'm looking out my window where the dead perennials stand proud above the snow. The early morning light baths them in a rosy warm glow. They are magnificent. But I know in a matter of minutes the light will change & the color will go flat. As I write, the magic is already leaving. Are they ordinary? Sure. But I saw the potential of light.
http://www.plainandsimplejourney.blogspot.com/
Your thoughts today, inspire me to relink the blog, write in it more frequently and give voice and act on what is in my heart.
Thank you for that gift.
http://aliandsethinthecity.blogspot.com/
Thanks for reminding me of this.
and so i started a blog and told no one about it, it became my online journal and i poured my life out in those pages, until people started to read it... and then i once again began to censor myself. i stopped writing entirely when i realised that i was no longer telling my own story.
i just started writing again, just for myself, and i am striving to keep it real and honest and true... every day.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bad_bab/2761476942/
I don't know how that has influenced my art. I do know that somewhere a long the way I learned secrets are damaging. I learned I preferred the ugly details, because it is in those details that the true beauty can be found.
So what can I learn from the self portrait I took yesterday? Is there something in my frizzy hair and break outs that tells the story of me right now? Maybe that I need a hair cut and my period is coming. That truth doesn't seem very interesting.
Thanks for keeping it real :)