Live the life you want...

This was a recent post on the listserv, that the author gave me permission to repost here. It's an important reminder about what's important in life.

I guess I am an idealist. I don't doubt that I am.

I have been shooting assignments every day for two weeks now, and while it is great for my bank account, I haven't been entirely moved by the work I have done. I realized this last night while at my friend Saadat's birthday party, because this photo, of him playing drums during his bands set, on his 30th birthday, is probably my favorite in recent memory. It made me feel so good to make this photo.

I know the image isn't mind blowing. It won't win me any awards. It isn't anything to the journalistic world, but it means something to me and it is something to my community. It is another page in my journal as my group of friends all enter their 30s.

I have almost 10 years worth of images documenting the social lives of my group of friends as we live out our indie rawk dreams, pursue careers, grow old and love our city.

For the most part, they are band shots or party snap shots or just hanging out snap shots. this shot is great on so many levels. Saadat is a homeowner and almost an architect now, but watching him play drums is the reminder that we may be older, but we all still the same.

I have spoken with a lot of you and heard you talk about how much you want to work for the mags and do "meaningful" work, and I don't want to discount any of that, but I think you constantly need to evaluate your situation and decide what is honestly meaningful to you.

I do a lot of work that is meaningful to me. Projects or assignments or whatever, but looking through all of my photos, I know that even if the audience is small, this collection of images of my social circle will stand the test of time. I always look forward to the days when my friends have kids, or we get together later and can look at these images and realize we live the lives we want.

I know a lot of great photographers, and I always notice when some of them only shoot assignments, but don't really document their own lives. That always feels to me like they are saying their own lives don't have value or they aren't worth remembering. Seems like a sad situation to be in.

A few years ago I went to a party at Nat Geo photographer Michael Nichols' house, and at first I was annoyed because all of the superstars were hanging out wearing their Leicas like they are Olympic medals. I thought these guys are the most pretentious, but then after a few beers and a little talking I noticed they all began making photos of each other. My favorite moment was when I noticed David Alan Harvey fumbling with the slide projector, completely unable to figure it out, and Bill Allard was right there camera in hand photographing the ridiculousness of it.

That was when I realized that many of my friends would be legends some day.

We all do the same things. We get a dozen people together with cameras and we laugh and we make photos of each other at our most human moments.

So I don't mean to rant or preach (ok, actually I do), but I just want those of you who might not realize it, to think about how important your own life is. How much do you value your own friends? Even without awards or magazines or the Washington Post, there are so many things worth capturing.

-- David Holloway

14 February 2005 by Melissa Lyttle

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