I AM ENOUGH (1/3)

This past March, I spent some time in India. Not only was i captivated by the myriad of colors and smells, I met some of the most resilient people. Since I have returned, I realized that I didn’t have an outlet to share these stories and the impact they had on me.

This past March, I spent some time in India. Not only was i captivated by the myriad of colors and smells, I met some of the most resilient people. Since I have returned, I realized that I didn’t have an outlet to share these stories and the impact they had on me. A good friend of mine, Josh Stephens challenged me to share these stories. I sent him the full album of my pictures from India. He overlaid the hand-designed typography over three photos and challenged me to share the story related to the picture. This is part one of my feeble attempt to share some of these untold stories with you. 

As I piled into a car with a translator, a driver, and a film student, we set off to different villages surrounding Salem, India. It was a dream. I had my camera, a Moleskine, and a purpose to capture the raw essence of life in India. I MADE IT. If my career ended that day, I would have been fulfilled. What a privilege it was to witness such a raw beauty, uninterrupted by outside influence. But to be trusted to capture its essence was a completely humbling and heavy experience. 

During one of these long filming days, I met a group of children who loved to summon my attention. To them, my camera was a portal to another world. Each child longed for their face to be frozen in time—to be seen and known. As each child leaned toward the lens, the sound of the shutter release would let them know that they had been successful. They made it. They would gather their friends and snicker as they shared of their experience in joyful Tamil—words I longed to understand.

As each day would swell with the excitement of new adventures that lie ahead, my attention was set on the joy of these children longing to be seen. 

I wrestled for years with self-worth. Being known by my community led to a disarray of rejection and love. And that’s a funky cocktail that will cause anyone to doubt their existence. just like the child who leaned all of his weight toward a lens that would verify his existence, trusting perfect love as the ultimate approval of the human experience is a brilliant act of surrender.

YOU ARE ENOUGH.