A COUNTERWEIGHT TO HATE
A dear friend of mine recently asked me what motivates me as a photographer. I responded by writing that the question I live in now is: How can I be a counterweight to the divisiveness in this world? Seamus Henley, the Irish poet who won the Nobel Prize for Literature, once wrote that poetry can be exactly that - a powerful counterweight to the evil in the world. I love that. And I feel, as silly as it may sound, my job as a human being is to be a counterweight to hate. It is the only way I know how to be a part of the antidote to violence. I fail way more often than not, of course, but it is THE driving force in me now, and it has allowed me to be a better father, a better husband, a better friend, a better human being really. And unquestionably, it is the driving force for me as a photographer. I don’t care what I’m shooting, or if I’m shooting for a client or not, I am always looking for something that could live as a counterweight to hate. And what does that have to do with this photography? Nothing really, other that I hope that, in some minuscule way, it contributes to the counterweight that is so desperately needed.
