I AM still here
Why is photography important to me?
I reached out to a gallery in Osaka, Japan. The owner asked me what my motivation for doing so was?
This was my response.
What is my motivation for wanting to have my work highlighted and sold in your gallery? That's a great question, and I ask myself why I want my work to be seen and invested in by people all over the world and in my backyard every day.
I shouldn't be here, I shouldn’t have the opportunity to create beautiful lasting moments with a camera and the editing process. I took my own life at 11 for the first time. This isn't about photography, this is about me overcoming me. This is about perseverance, grit, hope, and tons of faith in the process of being better than yesterday and moving forward. In spite of the hand I was dealt when I was born August 9, 1973 to parents who shouldn't have been together in the first place.
My life was spared, my life matters, my life is what I choose to do with it to help, and inspire myself and to hopefully help others to see that they matter too.
My mother destroyed my sense of self to the core a long time ago. She used love like an Iron Sword pulling me in when she needed love but pushing me away when I needed it. Ultimately, she made me feel that if I had a life of my own, hobbies of my own, friends of my own that I was being selfish. so, I believed her since she was the one person I loved most in this world.
So to really answer the question, I am ready to succeed.
Thanks for clicking on this post and reading it. It matters.
~Alan
