Wounds Cut Deep

We all have wounds; some are little scrapes and bruises and some are embedded deep within our souls. We, as people, cannot avoid the hurt, but we can choose how to deal with it. As I look around the classroom at school I can see pain in so many people's eyes. Some mask it with a grin, others cover it up with a list of things they have to do, and some just give up all together. We are in a world full of hurting people; hurting people with hidden pasts.
Some wounds are so painful that we try to cover them up quickly and as painlessly as possible. We wipe the dust off our hands, the tears off our face, and place a little silly bandaid on with the cartoon smiley faces. We try to continue through life never giving the wound the attention it needs. We walk through life with that little piece of tape over that gaping wound without ever realizing that one of the most important parts of the healing process is oxygen. Wounds need oxygen to heal, or the wound will become pruny and old. Wounds need to be exposed every once in a while if we ever want them to fully heal.
I don't know what pain you have been enduring lately: a death of a family member, a harshly spoken word, or a feeling of loneliness, but remember that we can't keep those cartoon faces on our wounds forever, we need to expose them. God's redemptive healing power works best when we are exposed and vulnerable. The fact is, God can see past our silly cartoon bandaids to the real pain. He can see the baggage we carry around and he can see the deep cuts to our heart.
That's one of the most amazing parts about this relationship with God. We don't have to come to him as something we're not. We can come ugly, bruised, and beaten up. We don't have to be strong because he is our strength, we don't need to be perfect because he is, we don't need to be everything because he thinks that each of us is enough. We don't need to be because he is. He is God and we are not. He sees our hearts and he sees our pain.
I don't know what you have been covering up lately, but whatever it is remember- we can't hide under the cartoon bandaid forever, we need to rip it off and expose ourselves, because true healing, healing from God, doesn't come without a little oxygen.

To Capture Beauty

Our world is full of images. Newspapers, magazines, ads, and billboards are full of them, as our society transforms itself into one based upon digitalized pictures. We are no longer taught to read for detail, but rather look for it. An image is no longer thought to be a valuable, but rather a necessity. Cameras are now on sale at department stores and it is an anomaly if a twenty-first century American doesn’t have access to a camera. As new developments arise, it is disappointing to see the image decrease in value, or rather the meaning of an image decrease in worth.
Back when film was used, photographers were forced to think before their finger ever captured a shot. Objects were carefully aligned through the view finder and there was definite thought behind a photo before it was even taken. As the digital camera was developed and distributed, so was the carefreeness of the shot. Thought and meaning rarely make it into a photo anymore because we no longer have to think before we make the shot. The digital photo made everything easier to delete, morph, and “fix” our photos. Since anyone can take a photo, what makes a photo have meaning and more importantly what is the purpose of photography?
Photography has many different purposes, such as evidence for a crime scene, advertising, and remembering the past and the people we love. Although photography has many different purposes, I believe photography's main purpose is to capture beauty. Beauty is so fleeting; something that people throughout the ages have been continually grasping at. To be able to capture beauty, something so fleeting, in a photograph is magic. Photography is a way to interact with God’s creation in a new way as you are forced to look at things one normally overlooks, such as the detailedness of a blade of grass or the vibrancy of a red apple or even the contagious laugh of a close friend. Images were never meant to “just be shot”, they were meant to captivate. Images are meant to draw a person in by its extravagant beauty, all the while evoking a certain emotion.
In today’s day in age we are faced with new tools to enhance a picture or alter an image in someway. Photoshop, Sumopaint, and Picnik are only some of the dozens of programs out today. Where ever you look you see models painted, fixed, and altered, creating an icon or a standard to which all human beings should fall. But is this truly the purpose of photography? Was photography ever meant to condemn? Young girls are constantly changing themselves to fit into the category that models have set within the pages of Vogue and Covergirl. They strive for this fleeting thing known as beauty. The images within these pages tell them to be beautiful they must be sexy, seductive, and flawless, when really the images have been altered rearranged and, in essence, fake. How can an image such as the one described contain this thing called beauty when all it does is make people feel bad about themselves? I believe beauty, in its truest form, is truth. Truth was never meant to condemn, but to breathe life. I believe true beauty is catching people in their truest form, such as in the middle of a laugh, or making a crazy face. That, I believe, is true beauty. When someone is unaltered, and unchanged; when blemishes, lines, and wrinkles are intact, and someone is just who God created them to be.
This is was I want to strive to do with my photography. I want to bring back true beauty to images; beauty that is unaltered, and unchanged; beauty that doesn’t condemn but breathes life. That’s what I desire to bring back to the pages of magazines and ads: beauty that breathes life. This is true beauty and the kind of beauty that God created and wants to see in his people. Photography is something that is so close to my heart and, to me, is a true form of art.