Social Impact Photography

The writer Janna Malamud Smith has written on the subject of the absorbing errand, that nourishing thing we do to keep ourselves on an even keel. As an example, she cites her elderly mother-in-law, Edie. Though she was an accomplished gardener, Edie lived in the northeastern United States and so she couldn’t practice her craft in the hard winter months. Each winter, she would become a little groundless and irritable, but then she returned to her agreeable self when the muddy spring thaw allowed her to resume her outdoor projects.

Smith writes, “I grew up surrounded by writers, painters, potters, musicians — artists of all sorts. But it wasn’t until I observed Edie in and out of her garden that I recognized the shared patterns I had long witnessed: life is better when you have a sustaining practice that holds your desire, demands your attention, and requires effort, a plot of ground that gratifies the wish to labor and create and rule over a world of your own.”

Like Edie, I have a few absorbing errands that keep me going, but my favorite is photography with vintage film cameras. Currently, I’m engaged in a multi-year project of looking closely at litter in Philadelphia.