This is a post about Challenge #2 – view it here. Please email me at [email protected] with the subject “Challenge 2”, with either 7 photos from your portfolio or a link to your profile portfolio gallery and I will choose 7 photos from it. This is due by next weekend.

Any new members are welcome to join it, but this was really meant as a half challenge for the beta members who have been going for a few months now and to share the work with the newer members for inspiration. We are going to revisit this challenge later in the year.

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I’m going to share a personal story here and how it relates to my work. Anxiety has always been an underlying theme throughout what I do, whether I knew it or not (and full disclaimer, both my parents are shrinks, if that doesn’t say enough already).

Growing up, I never would have thought it. I was always seen as a relaxed, type B person by others, so I just assumed that was who I was. But in reality, there was a lot more type A to me than I thought, and mixed with that relaxed demeanor was an underlying slightly tense feeling that just felt like my body was speeding me up. It’s hard to explain.

When I began photographing, I was always attracted to certain people, certain looks in people’s eyes. I now see it as being related to me feeling a connection to them, often through feelings of anxiety.

As the stresses of adult life piled on, that underlying feeling certainly got stronger, sometimes mentally, sometimes manifesting themselves physically. I felt more ‘sped up’ by the day. And seeing a psychiatrist (who seems much more normal than my parents, but shrinks can be good at hiding it), helped me understand what was going on and ways to deal with it as best I can.

And it makes much more sense now that a big aspect of my love for photography is that it’s an escape from everything. Not only the walk and the exploring but taking the time to look through a lens and observe your surroundings really takes you away from everything else in such a wonderful way.