Dear Lydia,

I’m so excited to be starting this project with you!!

I want this first post to be a little bit of an “aside” to our readers to help them understand what we are doing and why.

Lydia and I are cousins with a 22 year age difference between us. In addition to the generation gap, we’ve never lived close enough to one another to bond as much as we might like to.  We are both creatively bent and having little love affairs with our cameras.  Lydia went to college for photography right out of high school and I taught myself after the age of 40. The idea of collaborating on a project together has come up on several of our last visits and today is the day to begin! Yay!!

One of my ideas had been to explore our perspectives on the world. Pick a subject – each of us shoot it – and learn from each other. I’ve been reflecting lately on how much the way the world sees us can affect how we see the world and how we value self. I’m curious to find out where our commonalities are – how much do our shared family genes shapes us; and where our differences are. (And I love the differences – they open your eyes to new worlds) Factually speaking: I am the oldest cousin – Lydia is the youngest. She is tall and blonde and grew up in the 90’s. I am shorter, take after the Italian side of my family – and grew up in the 70’s/80’s. She’s following her passions straight out of the gate. I’ve come to mine after travelling long, meandering roads in life.

Our project is to photograph a sense of place with the guiding force being to photograph the places where we feel at home. This will give us a chance to get to know one another more intimately and stretch our creative and photographic muscles. We will be posting on Friday’s – each to our own space and linking back to one another. There will be one to several images with a few words.

I encourage you to check out Lydia’s Website and FB page. She is a model, artist and advocate who has only just begun to make her mark on the world. She’s full of energy and is driven to find ways to support the people in her community through their struggles in life. One of the things I admire about Lydia is her willingness to jump in and explore the things she feels passionate about. With a big heart and a willingness to be bold I know she will positively impact all she comes across.

What do you think Lydia? Are you as happy as I am that this has begun? I’m really looking forward to seeing your post next Friday.

Love, love, love,

T

P.S. Something I didn’t even consider until after creating this first post. I shoot with a Nikon and Lydia with a Cannon. Mines been dropped in water and sand and all the pieces on the back are falling off. Lydia got herself a lovely new camera as a graduation present. They kind of match us – I’m older and starting to fall apart and Lydia is “fresher” if you will. ;-)

Here is a link back to Lydia’s first post – I must say, I love it!