Inspired by an artist | Milwaukee Area Photographer|

I love those evenings when I get to out of the house and participate in something inspiring. Last night was one of those times. I attended a talk by Alec Soth hosted by the Haggerty Museum of Art. Soth is an American photographer that produces large-scale photography projects. His photographs are part of collections at museums such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and the Walker Art Center. And he is also part of the current exhibition at the Haggerty Museum, "The Truth is Not in the Mirror: Photography and a Constructed Identity." You can check out Alec Soth's blog to learn more about him. But this is my blog so I am going to talk about what I think...

What I liked about Alec Soth's work is its photojournalistic feel. His photos tell a story. He approaches them all as experiments and trials, which is basically how I feel about a lot of my photography work. I kept thinking back to my 365-photo challenge. The photos in that collection document my journey to learning more about photography. I would say that it documents my year, but it really didn't. There are a lot of milestones and moments from last year that do not appear in that collection. Most of the images are of what I saw around me. My motivation was to stretch my abilities at the various stages of photo making (subject, composition, camera settings, shooting, post processing, etc.) But just because it isn't an accurate telling of my complete life, it is still a story and one that I am extremely proud of. I love that you can see my development as a photographer from one photo to the next. I love that each photo has its own back story. I love that there are some photos that I absolutely hate because those are the ones I probably learned the most from.

For those of you not in the know. My 365-day photo challenge was a photo project I did Dec 7, 2009 - Dec. 6, 2010. The rules were simple: produce and post one photo per day for a year. I posted my work to my Facebook page. I call it a challenge because it was -- I was often frustrated. But it was just the push I needed to make myself "figure it out". I learned a great deal during the year, but by the end, I realized I still have a way to go.

Soth said something really interesting that stuck with me "I am embarrassed to say I am a photographer because who isn't". Isn't that the truth? Everyone takes pictures, right? Every middle-class parent seems to have a DSLR camera. So what makes me so special? What makes me think I can be an artist? I haven't quite figured that out yet. Perhaps that's what the next leg of my journey is about...finding my photographic voice and answering that question. If so, Alec Soth was the first to send me on my way with some encouraging words. At the book signing after his talk he wrote:

And with that I am on my way...