Week 10 — A World of Magic

Week 10/52

I sat around on tuesday, thinking that exhausted as I was, I didn't have a proper theme or setting for this week's photo. I was starting to panic a bit, because by tuesday I usually have a theme and a scheme for the photo, and this week I had nilch. Nada. Zero. So I asked myself what was the most important issue in my mind at the moment, and came up with two things: my little sister's surgery next week, and my novel.

I decided to write a Lent novel as a catharsis. When I allowed myself to go down last fall, I stopped reading, I stopped doing any of the things I normally did. But as I got better, I realized I could measure it by my reading; the more I read, the better i felt. I'm back to a minimum of one novel per week, and I absolutely love it. And I'm back to writing, which is an inefable relief, since I hadn't been able to do it for a while.

Words have been my weapon of wield since long before photography. When I still didn’t know I wanted to be a photographer, I knew I would spend my life writing, even if it was as a hobby. There’s a quality in words, which is almost... other worldly. This is what this shot is about, the magic that comes from a book or a fairytale. Images can stunn you at first, and make you think, and make your stomach bubble with joy or emotion, but words? Words, when properly arranged, can take you out of this reality, and throw you into something so much better. Or so much worse, if that’s your thing. Both things change us, and they’re both important. They complement each other; words go where the image can’t, and when you run out of them, the beauty of a graphic representation steps in.

One thing I ask of God is that He allow me to keep my innocence and my ability to be marveled by art. To be swept off my feet by a simple image, to feel that flutter in my stomach when I read the first paragraph of The End of the Affair, or to get teary eyed when I listen to Vivaldi’s Gloria. That innocence, I think, is what is always going to bring me back, put me back on my feet. Because as long as there’s art, I’m safe.

And don't forget to enter my print giveaway!