Dear Whoever you are

You are respectfully named Whoever you are because I don't remember your name. Your name doesn't even matter to me. You don't know me. That sentences is key. I am an artist. I am a storyteller. One of the tools I use to tell stories with is my camera.

Yesterday I posted some pictures on facebook. The pictures are a story of my short time in Memphis where I worked, praised, talked, shared, cried with a group of women ministers. I posted what I think are beautiful pictures. And what I think matters because it is afterall, my facebook page, my story, not yours. There were two pictures in particular that I especially liked. One was of a woman who is very dear to me, Valerie Bridgeman, in the pulpit at a church in Mississippi. My focus was not on her though, it was on the father and son in the pew in front of me. Rev. Bridgeman is fuzzy in the photo but the backs of the father and son are clear. How they were listening to her. How that young man was in church on a Saturday night with his father, listening. I loved that moment. I love the story I made up about that moment. I don't honestly know if they are father and son. Perhaps uncle and nephew, neighbor and friend, cousins, could even have been brothers. I don't know. But they were there and I caught that moment.

Another photo, of the 89 I posted is of a woman, Abigail, who was dancing during one of the services in Memphis. She was so graceful. Clad in her dancing gear, long flowing skirt and the rest. Beautiful. I took many pictures of her, as you saw. One of the ones that I loved is the picture I caught of her as she wizzed by me. In the photo she looked as if she is wizzing. Blurry but you can still make out who she is and what she is doing.

Why this post? Why this letter to you? Why are you Whoever you are? Well, because you chose to send me a message telling me not to post blurry pictures because potential clients want to see my best work. Are you one of my potential clients? Have you ever purchased a photo from me? Have you ever booked a photo session from me? Have you ever bought one of my books, been to any of my shows? Better, have you ever said "nice job" to me on a photo? I don't think so.

Let me express my art and tell my story how I want to. I am pretty sure that I am not the only woman whose art you try to direct and maybe they don't want to tell you, but I will. Back off. I don't know you. Tell your own story. Post your own clear pictures.

I guess you are saying, "wow, all of this from one simple message?" Well, yeah. Yes and no because I am not just responding to you. I am responding to ex friends, ex lovers, ex passserbyers who found it necessary to put their two cents in where it wasn't asked for or welcomed. So, for all of the times I didn't use my voice before, I say again... POST YOUR OWN CLEAR PICTURES.