That’s the biggest lesson by far: that to serve your clients fully, you must stop assuming you know what they want, and really LISTEN and pay attention to what they tell you they want.

No photographer is above their client. We serve people. That is our job. To do a good job, we must listen to people. Not assume.

When I was nine, a boy who liked me (he was 13) trekked through half of Sofia in the pouring rain to knock on my apartment door and hand me a bouquet of soggy purple irises. I looked at him suspiciously, I took the flowers... and I said

"Thanks for the flowers. That was really nice of you… but you shouldn't have wasted all your time."

WHY is documentary photography the best way to capture family memories?

The straight forward answer is simple: because there is CONTEXT. (there is also a secret reason that I’ll tell you about in a moment)

I often introduce myself to people as a documentary photographer. I put that right on my bio, on my website, everywhere.

The catch is that I have made a mistake in assuming everyone knows exactly how this works! 😱

Over the years, you have learned - without realizing it - that your real life is ‘ordinary’. You have learned that the everyday moments, those regular things that happen daily, are less than ‘special’.

What you have learned is a lie.

Insofar as social media exacerbates social isolation because of feelings of inadequacy (think of all those ‘perfect’ people, places, lives), documentary photographs offer a way forward. They offer honesty. They tell a story of each person and each family just as they are, in all that makes them human, flawed, relatable.

This is a photography experience that is as bendy and stretchy as your kids on the playground. It will give you as much joy as does hearing those two-word utterances your kids make when you ask them 'how was your day'? Ok, maybe more joy.