11/10/16
This is one of the last photos I took on Tuesday afternoon. I’ve been walking through Prospect Park almost daily with my son, the park has been exceptionally in season, plenty of fall colors, and really great weather. I’ve taken many photos of the park on these walks. I don’t feel right posting these right now.
Tuesday the 8th was a really nice day, warm (we didn’t need hats), sunny and clear with what in hindsight was the last warm breeze of the season. Election Day in NYC is a holiday for public schools, which are used for polling places, so the park was very busy with kids and their families playing. We were there late enough that adults were lounging around too.
I write this because the next day it was hard for me to look at these photos, a bright, rich world I was gleefully strolling through w my young boy held close. It was hard for me to go out into the world yesterday with my son, to encourage him to admire all that is around him and do the same myself (the weather was gloomy which is normally not a deterrent for me). I didn’t bring my camera.
I do not think of myself as a photographer, I think of myself as a musician who has grown this creative appendage that is photography. I didn’t have much to say yesterday, and I didn’t really know how to say the things I felt, the things I knew, or where to say them. So I played, I recorded, I reflected. Did it again, played with my son in-between. It’s how I start to connect my inner life to the rest of the world.
The world changed, and many of us felt that it was no longer the world we knew just hours before, and that hurt. Do not let this stop you from being who you are, and doing the things that sustain you. This is how we will help each other change things for the better. Whatever you do as an artist, if you do anything “as an artist” is important. If you don’t do anything “as an artist” do whatever you are passionate about, it doesn’t matter to me (it matters to you).
How we communicate with each other, especially when language seems so compromised, and how we can come together and share meaning, is vital when faced with, frankly, unwelcoming times ahead.
Do not “let it go” or “get over it.” Keep working, hold on to what keeps you working.
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