I was going through my thousands of cataloged reference photos I have on hand. To be honest, I was looking for a few things and purging a bit while doing so. But then I found myself immersed in my own light I had captured through years of photography.
I took a handful of them and posted them on Facebook with short but uplifting inspirational messages. The responses were heartwarming. People need light and being held up indoors can snatch your soul if you let it.
To an artist, light is everything in defining subject matter. But it is also a source of showing contrast and has come to be associated with good and evil. The question is when you are subjected to equal amounts of each, do you see hope or demise? Do you see optimism and pessimism? Do you see the good or only focus on the evil?
Remember now, these are serious times, but there is hope and the news is not in the business of delivering it. The news wants your attention to sell advertising. This is why the weather, easily the most popular part of the news, is usually the STORM center and not the BLUE SKY center. I don’t care where you live, you get more blue sky than storms, but ugliness seems to sell and gets people's attention. Why focus on what you don’t want when you can focus on what you do want.
Look at the photo I have here and you will see the contrast. See what captures your attention more, the dark areas or the light. Please let it be light.
Be well and live an artful life,
Tom