Sometimes I look back to strengthen my ability to look ahead. Here's one of my early photos when I began working in earnest on my photography passion. It's from Derby Wharf in Salem, Massachusetts, catching a replica of the Tall Ship Friendship semi-frozen in the harbor ice. When I look back on it today, I realize how my early photos taught me about how I envision the world. Thankfully, those lessons continue to teach me today - especially over this this last year of turbulence. Looking ahead, this image reminds me that:
Much of the beauty in life is found in the space between the certain and solid amongst the hints and shades of things yet to be learned. The future is both solid and fuzzy: While I need a plan to navigate uncharted waters, I must allow for space to learn by looking at things from a different angle.
What I crop "out" of the picture is just as important as what I let into the frame. There's so much noise, distraction and dilemma taunting us from the fringes of our sight. The power to exclude the unnecessary is what gives us something worth looking at today, and aiming for tomorrow. Cropping is as important as expanding.
There's a lot to be learned from the past. In our age, obsessed with the new and next shape of things to come, plenty of lessons await us in the past. The Tall Ship Friendship was a pioneer of its day. Its sailors and merchants came from tightly networked groups in town. It ventured around the world 15 times to connect people through commerce and trade. Its constantly risked the dangers of the sea, sickness, capture and being blown off track.
Yet, as the historians tell us, "It's simply what you did if you lived in a seaport in those days. It's how they saw the world."
In other words: Just like us!
So, a reminiscence today, and maybe an encouragement to look back at some old pictures and ask yourself what you've learned to see, what you keep in and out of your sights, and how you have become more ready than ever to set out your next voyage -
A Tall Ship of your own!