It's What Keeps Us Warm

Dreary, slushy wintery days such as this are a good day for reflection and looking inward. A good day for remembering the things that keep us warm at our very core. Here is a brief list of the things that light me up from the inside. 

• Spontaneous hugs
• Warm scarves
• Holding a cup of steaming hot tea with both hands and breathing in the steam
• Looking at my son's beautiful face when he's doing just about anything
• The feel of my cat's fur
• Beautiful music that makes me cry
• Good poetry
• Bad poetry
• Holding hands with the one I love
• Miniature spoons
• Polaroid film
• The way loving someone feels bigger than the universe, larger than life

There is a reason I'm particularly drawn to photographing people. People in love, people devoting their lives to one another, people celebrating, people nurturing new families, people just trying to get by like everyone else and trying to find the meaning and beauty in the world that can sometimes feel elusive. I think of love as a verb, an action you take, a thing you do, something you demonstrate. I'm honored to be entrusted with the sacred task of documenting all the myriad ways in which human beings show their love to one another, and couldn't stop it from being apparent if they wanted to. 

Love is what keeps most of us warm, determined, and alive, more than anything else. It makes us do stupid things and wonderful things alike. It makes us roll up our sleeves to do what needs doing even when things are really hard. It's what stays when we're gone. And being able to witness that time and time again, and have the pictures to prove it, makes me feel particularly tender towards my fellow humans. It puts me a particularly warm and loving mood about this existence. I hope it does you too. 

 

All my photographic love,  
Sam