Now granted I don't love every aspect of the work that I do but then again, who does? There are small things that drive me a little nuts from time to time but at it's most fundamental level my job is what I believe I was born to do.
On a good day I get to meet people from such vastly different walks of life that it's often hard to remember what kind of person I have convinced myself I am or exactly what socio-demographic I feel I should fit into.
Thing is, in my past I have never felt comfortable being put into one category or another. My circles of friends has always looked like a Venn Diagram, and so have my interests.
And that's why I think I fit so well into this niche I've found. Every day I meet different people and every person that I meet presents me with a completely different personality; challenging my ability to communicate with, understand and of course photograph them. Truth be told, the actual act of taking a picture is often secondary to the experience of being at an event or meeting a person or group of people. Rather, it's simply a tool to gain access to slices of life most often only read about or pass in fleeting glimpses. Or maybe a tool that enables me to see slices of life that people often overlook. However you want to frame it it is something that I am aware of and thankful for.
I would argue that what makes some photojournalists so great is that they have a truly exceptional ability to relate to all walks of life in all situations. In some respects they just happen to know a little bit about a lot of things but whatever the case may be they find something they can identify with in their subjects.
I think the reason I have found so much happiness in this line of work is because this is what I have done nearly my entire adult life. Learning about the people I meet and the things they do and in the process learning about myself. The picture taking has pretty much always been an afterthought.
Now I am not saying that everyday is lived under a rainbow with sunny skies and yes, many days do feel like work. But every now and again I get a day like today...
I arrived into work an hour early fueled by a half a pot of coffee and an angelic 12-hour slumber... and not just any old 12-hour slumber. This was the kind of sleep that mattress companies advertise can only be achieved by sleeping in their beds. You know, bed in a field of rolling hills at daybreak with a man and a woman embracing as if they had literally spent the night sleeping on clouds. Mine was just like that, except instead of a beautiful woman it was my smelly 60-lb Lab.
I digress...
After unloading my camera, computer, lunch and coffee cup I sat in my swiveling seat and awoke my computer from hibernation. As I looked at a blank slate of assignments for my shift my mind began to race in search of tasks to accomplish over the course of the next eight hours.
I starred at the computer for a minute more and then began typing about what else...? You guessed it... The weather. I had a pair of photos I had taken from a trip to a pumpkin patch a few days back and thought that I would attempt to dictate a defense for why I loved the changing of the seasons.
Fortunately for humanity my attempt at defending the goodness of pumpkins was interrupted by an assignment at an antique store in Caldwell. The antique store was under new management and... Well that's not really important. I snapped a few photos of the kind folks at Avalon Antiques and then begrudgingly began my journey back to my cold grey cubicle.
I drove about six blocks before encountering a man standing on the corner of a busy intersection near downtown Caldwell. Not entirely unusual except that drapped over his shoulders was a gigantic piece of cardboard donning the phrase: "NO ON THE JAIL BOND". As it turns out the man was one of more than a couple who was hired by a candidate to display the signs in the days leading up to Tuesday's election.
Naturally, I stopped to talk to the guy and was surprised to find that he was only in it for the money and was actually intending on voting in the opposite position for which he was advertising. So we talked for about 20 minutes and as I thanked him and turned my back he softly said, "The Lord blesses you". I thanked him again a walked away happy to have met him.
I arrived back in the office with a small spring to my step feeling as though I had just experienced a truly unique character. I mean, who gives you their name followed by the statement "I have a misdemeanor" and concludes the conversation with "The Lord blesses you"?
So I sifted through my photos for a few minutes before being dispatched out to photograph a 19-year-old who had recently arrived back in her home state after spending the last two months in an Intensive Care Unit in Seattle for injuries she sustained after falling from a window on the campus of the University of Idaho in September.
I walked through the doors of Trinity Mission Health & Rehab - an assisted living facility in Nampa - and immediately grief and anxiety hung over my head like a black umbrella. The swelling of self pride I had previously carried was swiftly deflated as I entered a dimly lit room and passed by the privacy curtain to see a beautiful young woman lay nearly lifeless. She was surrounded by her mother, step-father, brother and sister who, considering the circumstances, were surprisingly upbeat and supportive.
I visited with the family for about 15 minutes before thanking them and gracefully making my exit. As I walked down the halls of the facility towards the front door I noticed that every patient looked to have lived a long life, and although choices had been made and likely could have been avoided I found it overwhelmingly unfair that Amanda Andaverde was not going to get the opportunity to reach her potential.
Although I will admit it sounds like the proverbial emotional roller coaster ride, today was just one more day at the office. Nothing like the day before and hopefully nothing like the day after...
