Sometimes Pure Light

“Les Orphelines” means Orphan Girls — the title of Marianne Charland’s

photo and video documentary essay on grief, bereavement and survival in

four women who lost mothers in adolescence. Having secured crowdfunding,

Marianne leaves for Europe to begin the project in May 2022.

Instagram: @les.orphelines & @mariannecharland

Real. Posed. Fake. Authentic. Candid. Contrived. Us photographers use these words. It’s on our minds. In this episode I explore the meteoric shift in my work from documenting what was before me to becoming proactively hands-on with my subjects. I love capturing life as it is and I love influencing it to my creative end. Is it possible to pledge allegiance to both?

Thou Shalt Actually Enjoy What Thou Doest and other things I’ve learned, been taught and discovered so far. These rules make my creative life not only possible but flourish. Do you center joy your creative process? Things changed for me when I made that my highest end. Also I was told once to work for the work and I finally realized who to answer to. I also learned how to measure success (spoiler: not by number of followers) and how to leverage that wonderful college tool called a syllabus. These creative commandments were my game-changers toward a fulfilling creative life.

When I get behind the lens of my camera it’s for one of three reasons: to document daily life, to capture a symbol that is meaningful to me or to contribute to an ongoing project. I like when these overlap, I like when they don’t. Instead of exploring theoretical differences, I discuss how I subjectively approach these different forms in practical terms as a photographer.

In this episode I ask does “better done than perfect” apply to art? How much work do you make per year that you’re deeply satisfied with? And how perfection plays a central and healthy role in my creative life.

I once heard Maurice Sendak, illustrator of Where The Wild Things Are say that for him, "the needle is stuck in childhood." Me too, Maurice. The themes in our work revolve magnetically around the themes of childhood. My impulse to photograph families comes from a seed that until now was felt but unintelligible to me. Prompted by an exercise in the Teethkiss Workshop by Anna Palmer, in this episode I follow this question around the room of my childhood home: What is the seed of the work?