Hello friends!

I hope this letter finds you all well! It’s the first day of my absolute favorite month, and I have so many good things to share.

First, you may be noticing that my newsletter has gotten a bit of an upgrade. For those of you who were around back when I first launched this a year and a half ago you’ll notice it looks a little closer to the style I initially started with. As time went by and I let myself get busy (too busy!) I began to strip it down to just a simple letter. But now that it’s grown, I’ve ditched social media, and am making this and other personal projects my primary focus, it felt like it was time to bring it back to my initial vision for it.

Speaking of personal projects, below I share some very exciting news about two of them: one I wrapped up earlier in the summer, and one I’m just getting under way on. I also share some images from a short (and much needed) respite in Saint Augustine, Florida, back at the beginning of October (forever grateful for homeschool, when you can just decide that enough is enough and take a break when you need), links to my recent blog posts, the story behind the blog & newsletter’s new name, and two other photographers worth checking out.

There’s quite a bit more here than you’re used to seeing; I hope you’ll find it worth exploring. As always, I hope you enjoy, and you know how much I love hearing from you, so write me back!

kg

THE LIGHT AT THE EDGE

The last time we took a vacation - a real vacation - I sat on the beach nursing my youngest. He’s now six. To say that we were overdue is a drastic understatement. I took my camera (four of them, actually) having no idea what exactly I was going to capture, but excited at the prospect of a new landscape to explore with them. Inspiration is not hard to come by where the ocean meets the land, and I ended up creating this series of images exploring the light at the edge.

PEOPLE & PLACES

Since before finishing up my last project I’ve had the desire tugging at me to start a new one. Though I had been wrestling with it for a while I couldn't quite flesh out what it would be. I was leaning toward portraiture, but unsure of the direction.

Fast forward a few months when I was thinking heavily about the ideas of place and home, and a photographer I’ve always enjoyed, Adam Lewis, had shared with me about a project he was preparing to begin called People and Things, photographing people with objects that were important to them. (You can also follow along with the project on his Instagram.) The idea was a fascinating one for me, in part because as I thought through what object someone might photograph me with, I came up empty. I couldn't think of a single object that was that important. But walking through the thick, pine-scented Southern air one afternoon it hit me; my attachments aren’t to things, but to places. I began to wonder if others feel the same. And what does a portrait of someone look like when they're standing on their own hallowed ground?

Over the next six months to a year I’ll be looking to photograph people in the spaces that are important to them. To find out more you can check out the project page on my site, and there’s even a link to sign up if you’re interested in participating.

DEAR FRIEND PREORDER

“Let there be no purpose in friendship, save the deepening of the spirit.”

- Kahlil Gibran

Earlier this summer my sweet friend Donna and I finished up our year long photo penpal project, which was previewed on my website under the original working title “From There to Here.” While it was fun to see how we got from there (the first photo) to here (the last), in the end the project was really about friendship. Speaking only a little about each image as we sent them back and forth, it was our real life conversations about life and art that informed their making along the way.

Now we’re ready to put our work out into the world. While we considered a book, we decided that a set of postcards seemed much more fitting. After all, the project is a conversation between friends. Each boxed set contains 42 beautiful, heavy weight 4x6 postcards, one of each image from the project, as well as one additional image with a handwritten note. A limited number of sets will be available for purchase through my website for $35 plus shipping beginning mid-November, however you lovelies of course get first dibs. They would be a beautiful addition to any photography collection, or make thoughtful gifts for your own dear friends.

For a little more on the project, and to preview eight of the images, you can check out the project page on my website. To reserve your set send me a note using the button below.

RECENT POSTS

At the end of my post on Logos I talk about some of my favorite images from other photographers; the images that resonate most deeply and tend to stay with me. One photographer who creates these images often for me is Adam Welch. There’s one image in particular, Breakers, which falls into this category, but I would be doing you all a great disservice if I only shared a link to that one image. So instead I will encourage you to check out his Instagram, his website, and if you’re interested in film/photography (or if you just enjoy an entertaining blend of information and irreverence with a heavy Southern accent) his YouTube channel. If you dig around you’ll find Breakers, but even if you don’t I’d be willing to bet you find an image that moves you.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

In 1978, MoMA curator John Szarkowski put together an exhibit titled Mirrors and Windows: American Photography Since 1960, in which he placed photographers’ work into one of two categories: Windows, where the images were documentary in nature, recording what was in front of the photographer and absent any commentary or agenda; and Mirrors, where the images were a reflection of the photographer’s self, thoughts, or feelings.

I think of this often as I contemplate my own work; unsure exactly where I sit. (There’s actually an interesting theory that envisions the two ideas as either end of a spectrum, with no photograph sitting exactly at one end.) While I think some of my images fall into the window category, I probably tend to create (or at least share) more mirrors.