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So I decided long ago to just go ahead and give up the fight and surrender. I surrendered to Love. I get giddy, stupid happy when I have a hand in giving people a glimpse of how beautiful they really are. Part of my gift in this world is to be a reflection to others of who they were created to be. Photography lets me do this in a very tangible way.
I lived in hiding most of my life. No, I wasn't an off the grid desert dweller, but I may as well have been. I was terrified of being seen as who I was. But that was because I was a tender little kid who kept running into the hard edges of the world until I thought it must be -- it had to be my fault that everything kept hurting so much. So (as kids think) if it's my fault, I'll take care of it and I'll just hide away in this little cave. And it worked. No more running into hard edges, but the caveat was the lack of running into anything at all. I was so desperately alone in there. So even when I was surrounded, I felt alone. It took more years than I care to say to come out of that safe, life crushing, little cave and out into the real world. But come out of hiding, I did, and I came out with the fire and passion to walk others out of the caves they found themselves in, and out into the lives they were meant to live, as the people they were created to be.
Everything I do, all of my creative outlets reflect this. Music, writing, dance, speaking, photography and the short films I make. My favorite thing to say is --
You are Seen. You are Known. You are Loved.
The day this came to me, it was whispered straight into my heart and my chest nearly exploded with joy to know that I was seen and known, and that I was Loved anyway. I didn't think it could be real, that even when I stopped hiding and began to show the world who I really was, I was Loved, anyway. So I keep taking pictures to reflect back to anyone in front of my lens the same Truth. I don't use my lens to cover up. I use my lens to speak the Truth of who we were created to be, and that we are Seen, Known, and Loved.
video created by sallie mosely photography
video soundtrack courtesy of songsofwater.com