Quote of the Day

I am in the home stretch of my long-term photography project, a few more months to go (hopefully), and sometimes I say to myself, “Am I ever going to finish?”  But that thought is exactly why I am doing this project.

I keep thinking of this quote by Eleanor Roosevelt: “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.  You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”

I also frequently think about this quote by Sally Mann in her new book, Hold Still: “The voice of despair suggests seducingly to me that I should give up, that I’m a phony, that I’ve made all the good pictures I’m ever going to, and I have nothing more worth saying.  That voice is easy to believe, and, as a photographer and essayist (and my early mentor) Ted Orland has noted, it leaves me with only two choices: I can resume the slog and take more pictures, thereby risking further failure and despair, or I can guarantee failure and despair by not making more pictures.  It’s essentially a decision between uncertainty and certainty and, curiously, uncertainty is the comforting choice.”

Somehow the act of creation does feel scary and overwhelming, at times, as illustrated by the quotes above.  This project is reminding me to keep an open mind, persevere, and remembering that I can always go farther than I initially think.  Walt Disney said, “If you can dream it, you can do it.”  I believe that every day.  If you dream something, make it happen, and witness it come to fruition — there is nothing more rewarding.

Happy Tuesday!