“The internet offers a space of anonymity where opinions remain uncensored and available for many to encounter. With so many people coming into contact with news in non-traditional forms, it is imperative to examine how these spaces are creating a new, and perhaps separate, collective memory regarding an event. In this paper, I examined how photographs influence the collective memory of an event. More specifically, what role is the public taking in shaping the memory of an event through online photo-sharing and other “Do It Yourself” media forms? Professional publications no longer supply the only depiction of the way an event unfolded. They are no longer the central voice for how the public perceived that happening. The public plays a crucial role in shaping the memory of events through their regular interactions online. Furthermore, the photographs they post continually mold the current memory of an event and influence the way that event will be remembered in the future.”

SOPA and PIPA will stop our ability as a culture to take part in how we influence collective memory. Write your elected officials. Stop SOPA. I’m doing what I can to support the strike. I have contacted my elected officials more than once.

Click the image to learn more about SOPA and PIPA. Click the image to join the movement. Click the image for resources. Be infoand will be blacked out on January 18trmed now… or censorship could prevent you from being informed in the future.

May 7, 2008

“I was fifteen years old and just a few weeks into my sophomore year of high school. The day started out like any other day: I woke up, got ready for school, and stopped into my cheer advisor’s classroom when I got to school. From that moment on, it was no longer a typical day.

Courtney had leukemia. She was thirteen years old. How was this possible?

I fumbled through my day. By the time I got to cheer practice in 6^th period, I was so grateful to be surrounded by other girls who knew Court. We hugged and we sat in silence. We tried not to cry, but sometimes couldn’t help ourselves. We took the team picture that day and the other freshmen cheerleaders used eyeliner to honor her on their shoulders.

Days, weeks, and months passed by. We missed Court every day and wished her the best. We made videos and cards for her. By the end of the year, there was no evidence of disease. She was cancer free and given the go ahead for coming back to school the following year. Success! She was a survivor.

She was an inspiration… and she continues to inspire from the heavens. She did not have an earthly survival when she was re-diagnosed with leukemia two years ago. I have written of those final days many times, but I still struggle with understanding why she couldn’t survive leukemia a second time. She was nineteen years old. This isn’t how a life should end. It breaks my heart to see living grief in her family and closest friends.”

October 14, 2008

“Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose. ~From the television show The Wonder Years

Courtney’s mom set up a group a long time ago, where people can go to light virtual candles, think of her today… wear pink, light a candle, pray it forward.”

Photos of other recent sessions are here.

This week is a big week. As a nation, we remembered on the ten year anniversary of September 11th. I can hardly believe how quickly the last ten years has gone.

Garnering much less attention though… yesterday, September 13th, was National Childhood Cancer Awareness Day (as we are here in the middle of National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month). This date will be specially set aside each year to call attention to pediatric cancer, the #1 cause of death by disease in children in the United States.

The impact of childhood cancer on our nation is staggering and I pray we find a cure. Here are a few facts from Children’s Cancer Fund:

* Cancer cuts short the lives of more children under the age of 20 than any other disease

* 1 child out of 5 who is diagnosed with cancer dies

* 3 out of 5 children suffer from long-term or late side effects

* Every school day, 46 young people, or two classrooms of students, are diagnosed with cancer in this country

* There are now more than 270,000 childhood cancer survivors in the United States, and this number is growing rapidly

Please consider a donation to Max’s Ring of Fire or another organization dedicated to funding research and support for pediatric cancer.

I don’t remember the first time I heard this quote, but I know that it has stayed with me since that moment. My best friend started a team to walk for lupus. When I walk with him at the end of April, I want him to know that he is not walking alone.

I believe in the power of community. I believe that when people come together, we can accomplish the impossible. In the last few weeks, we’ve seen the world come together to support New Zealand and now Japan. We’ve watched the world wait and pray and donate to assist those that were affected personally by the earthquakes and tsunamis.

Imagine if we came together that way always.

We all have causes we care about: homelessness, poverty, cancer, slavery, the environment, life… the list goes on and on and on. They all matter; and I’m asking that you put lupus on your list. Please. In the spirit of giving, I have something to give you in return. For your support, dedication, and donation, you will receive your session at a deeply discounted rate. You will find all of the details below and you can contact me if you have any questions.

Click the flyer below to see it larger. Share the link to this blog post. Donate. Raise awareness. Learn more. For whatever you can do, thank you. I appreciate it.

What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other.
-George Eliot

He’s walking for his mom and I’m walking to support him and his family. Together, we can raise the essential funds for research, education, and support services needed for the estimated 1.5 million Americans that are affected by a form of lupus: an acute and chronic (lifelong) autoimmune disease in which the immune system is unbalanced, causing inflammation and tissue damage to virtually every organ system in the body.

The Lupus Foundation of America, Inc. (LFA) is the foremost national nonprofit voluntary health organization dedicated to finding the causes of and cure for lupus and providing support, services, and hope to all people affected by lupus. The LFA and its nationwide network of nearly 300 chapters, branches, and support groups conduct programs of research, education, and advocacy.

Please click the image below for Team Firework and consider donating. Stay tuned for more information in the next day or so about the photo fundraiser I’ll be doing to benefit LFA.

I haven’t disappeared, I’ve just been working on a recent session. I loved the simplicity of this shot though and had to share it here.

“In their highest boughs the world rustles, their roots rest in infinity; but they do not lose themselves there, they struggle with all the force of their lives for one thing only: to fulfil themselves according to their own laws, to build up their own form, to represent themselves. Nothing is holier, nothing is more exemplary than a beautiful, strong tree.

“Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.

“A tree says: A kernel is hidden in me, a spark, a thought, I am life from eternal life. The attempt and the risk that the eternal mother took with me is unique, unique the form and veins of my skin, unique the smallest play of leaves in my branches and the smallest scar on my bark. I was made to form and reveal the eternal in my smallest special detail.

“When we are stricken and cannot bear our lives any longer, then a tree has something to say to us: Be still! Be still! Look at me! Life is not easy, life is not difficult. Those are childish thoughts. Let God speak within you, and your thoughts will grow silent. You are anxious because your path leads away from mother and home. But every step and every day lead you back again to the mother. Home is neither here nor there. Home is within you, or home is nowhere at all.”

An Excerpt from Wandering by Herman Hesse

Here’s a Lensbaby outtake from after we changed out of fancy outfits and my cousins showed me all of their latest tricks – soccer stud, skating star, and bicycling beauty. I fell in love with the blur in this shot instantly. Such a representation of how quickly they go and grow.

Check in at the other blog for some more pictures from that day.