The Beginning

When I reflect on my time in college, I see God's hand working throughout all of it, weaving a story that speaks to His goodness and sovereignty. One of the ways I see evidence of this is in the courses I studied. In the second semester of my freshman year at DePauw, I had my first art class—Introduction to Photography— a class I had not signed up for.

In this class, I fell in love with the process of film photography. Being alone in the lab under the time-bound process of development, turning the tank over and over as chemicals bathed the film. Slicing the dried film into shorter strips, eagerly looking over the negatives on the light table. Then in the darkroom, making contact sheets and prints, finding the best exposure time, burning and dodging areas.

The next years at DePauw brought more art classes on photobooks, digital photography, and experimental film processes, among other mediums, and I am immensely grateful for my professors, for Peeler, and for the God who led me to it.

These ten images are from my final portfolio project for Introduction to Photography. I don't remember why I wanted to photograph old family photos, or what initially prompted the idea, other than the Spirit moving, beginning to draw out themes from my life story that shape me.

Themes of childhood. Of memory. Of loss. And later, of generational creativity woven throughout my family's history.

Looking back, I see this one photography course, this microcosm, joining the grand narrative: When in the beginning my Creator, who, shaping me from dust, made me in His image, the desire to create embedded within my soul.