Each One. Teach One.

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to host three young men now in high school at my gig. They came my way through a former co-worker Detective James Manning of the Seattle Police Department. James has been mentoring youth in the Seattle area for over a decade. Volunteering his time and just giving them a little push and steering them in the right direction. We need more James Manning’s in this world.

We generally chopped it up, talked about life, school and career. They were genuinely inquisitive and asked a lot of really great questions. At the end of the day it’s all about exposure. They had no clue that Facebook was right here in their own backyard. It’s so important to for them to see people that look like them workin’ at these tech giants in the city they call home.

These dudes weren’t asking for a hand out or hand up, they merely wanted to know how I got here. The world generally doesn’t see us, often discounts us. Thank god for people like James Manning for giving these dudes the exposure, access and inspiration to chase their dreams.

Rumble. Young men, rumble.

The most important images...

Pearls of wisdom from David Burnett.

Inspo: Why Family Photos Matter | Thomas Allen Harris

Lately I’ve been harping about the importance of photographing what you love. For me it’s family. When I first started taking photography seriously as a creative outlet, I didn’t view my family as subject matter, so I rarely turned my lens toward them. This is something I regret every day. Fast forward to today, now I’m a dad with a family of my own. All I ever photograph it seems is my family, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

I have vivid memories of my mom always with a camera nearby taking photos of milestones. It seems like her Kodak Instamatic was never too far. School play, snap. Thanksgiving, snap. Graduation, snap. All those photos tucked away in albums. Then on August 24th 1992 Hurricane Andrew makes landfall. At that time, Hurricane Andrew was the most destructive storm to ever hit the United States. Before the storm, I remember my mother putting the family photo albums and countless envelopes of negatives in garbage bags then putting those garbage bags into big blue plastic Rubbermaid tubs. It didn’t dawn on me until a few years later that she was protecting family memories, our history, our record. While our home was destroyed, those blue plastic tubs full of photos survived and so did our family history in photos. This left an indelible mark on me, motivating me to document my own family and more importantly PRINT those photos.

I recently discovered a show on PBS called Family Pictures: USA, a new three-part PBS series created and hosted by filmmaker and photographer Thomas Allen Harris, explores American cities, towns and rural communities through the lens of the family photo album. When I was doing more research about the show I came across this Ted Talk from its creator and host. If you are at all interested in photographing your family, telling your family story, it’s worth the watch.

In the age of Facebook and digital photographs, Thomas Allen Harris explores the need for the traditional, physical family photograph. Using these mementos as a starting point, we can open our hearts and minds to memory and healing. Thomas Allen Harris is a filmmaker and artist whose work illuminates the human condition and the search for identity, family, and spirituality.