One of the reasons I started taking self portraits this year was that I had the same lightbulb moment that so many other photographers have, we’re hardly ever in any pictures. And my passion for photography comes largely from my passion for documenting life and without photos of me, my stories were incomplete.
Then I had another lightbulb moment, there were hardly any photos of my son and I together doing all the things that we do. So I started making a conscious effort to get us together in the frame much more often. And this week, Thea Coughlin’s Across the Room Project inspired me. Coughlin’s project is about capturing real life and the mundane things we do together every day. Life’s not full of moments with beautiful backdrops and backlighting. It’s full of mornings spent making LEGO robots before we’re dressed and showered. Him still in his jim jams and with a little strawberry jam on his face. Me wearing a sweater marked with a pattern of holes that mysteriously appear on all of my shirts just at my waist.
This is what our life is really like.
