Dancing Days Are Here Again...

We're scheduled to shoot the 8th Grade Dance for Indian Mills tonight and I have been thinking all week about the ways that we are documented in photographs as we pass through our rites of passage. Throughout so many times in our lives we document the variety of events in our lives with photographs and often there are some pretty bad photographs that fall into this category. Too many times have I looked at a weird snap shot from a graduation or viewed an equally horrid dance photo from one of my friends and wondered (to myself) how I could have made that photo better.

Those photos aren't just a piece of paper with an image on it from a past event. They are the solid manifestation of our memories of an event. You can look at a photo of you from your middle school dance and remember all kinds of things from that night just by viewing your poofy hairstyle and the horrid outfit you wore. Just got a glimpse of my business partner's 8th grade dance photo and if someone can make her look bad, well, there's little hope for the rest of the world. :)

I think my goal going into events like this evening's dance or the prom photos we photographed a month or so ago is to take the best possible photos for those kids. I would say my business partner probably feels the same. Someday I want them to look back and actually not think too badly of their photos. Yes, I know hair styles will change and certainly dress and shoe styles will change even more. And yes, we always look back and make fun of our lousy hair or the weird shoes we are wearing. There's no way around that. But at least when they look at the dance photos and prom photos we provide for them, they will be able to see themselves as younger versions, filled with hope and possibility. That is my true hope and though there are often times, throughout the process, when it seems fruitless, at the end of the editing and post-processing, my faith is often restored that we have achieved this goal.

I guess as far as goals go, mine isn't too lofty and hopefully we will nail down that goal tonight and make things happen (photographically) for another bunch of young people going through one of life's many rites of passage.  Those young people probably won't come close to appreciating our efforts for years and years but hopefully they WILL someday appreciate the results of our efforts. One can only hope...