Exactly one year ago I set out on what was a highly anticipated journey: a family reunion 2 years in the making - organised by my dear aunt in Germany.
Twenty five members of my African/Czech-German family came together from all corners of the globe to seek out our roots in the Czech Republic where our common great great grandfather was from. It was indeed the journey of a lifetime. But it was also the start of a new cycle, a turn onto a new path, with the intention of redirecting the purpose of my life, or just how I live it.
Naturally I planned on documenting this reunion and creating some sort of project out of it. But I also wanted to catalyze my photographic aspirations in the direction of fine arts and away from anything commercial. So I also took my portfolio with me, with the intention hitting the galleries in the hopes of finding at least one curator who might be interested in showing my work.
I also applied to Oxford Trinity in London to train in TESOL (Teaching English As a Foreign Language)so that I could increase my ability to travel more and further, where I could explore new cultures and create new work. Also if I could spend more time abroad, I thought, I could delve into my past with relatives and old friends across the oceans, who all could perhaps help 're-member' an old self I was convinced had been squelched by my New York City life.
On the surface the following may seem a strange statement to make(since truly, I've never really lived a conventional life - always 'seeming' to follow every creative impulse), but I was seeking (via travel I guess) to purify my creative exchange with life, to learn to live more authentically, to experience my life rather than simply to survive it; to appreciate it and quietly direct it rather than to grade it according to external factors of failure and success.
A year later, I'm still on that trip, and still living out of a suitcase. Not everything went according to plan, as is life, right? And my travels have not been nearly as exotic as I dreamed...yet; but every minute of the last metamorphic 365 days have been filled with extraordinarily palpable, authentic experiences that continue to transform me daily with gratitude, wonderment, and love. It was indeed a rather auspicious, or you could say fortuitous occasion that I would begin such a journey on a family reunion.
As some of you may recall - I promised to blog about all this, but never quite got around to it. But dammit, I can't let all my little videos and snapshots stay in the proverbial dust cabinet now can I?! So at long last I begin to 'show' this story, though again, I won't promise consistency as current life events or 'whims' will continue to compete for blog space. So, after much adieu:
Thanks for allowing us to go along with you at the start of your family journey last summer. At last I get to see what Aunt Trude look like! I look forward to seeing your still photos also (those which went along with your caper through the fields when you recorded splendor in the grass).
ReplyDeleteTill Vol. 2--
Love
This is all so interesting.Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThis is truly wonderful and very professional - the BBC can learn form this. I love the little notes on camera introducing the folks in the shot. Excellent! Can't wait for the next episode. I missed this early part of the reunion, so it's great to see it from your perspective.
ReplyDeleteLots of love
Uncle Tony
xx
Finally. Also: Lovely. Please keep it up.
ReplyDeletethanks you guys. Vol. II is in the editing room - THE INTRODUCTIONS - it's a bit long but there's some funny bits. Well, at I think so...
ReplyDeletetoo deliciously funny!!! Is it me, or does Uncle Rudolf look like Timmy Wilson?
ReplyDeleteOh my GOD - you are SO right. I never thought of that but you have a point girl. Steve needs to watch this. haha - wonder if the Wilsons have any German in them...
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