I’ve wrapped up my spring classes at the Center for Documentary Studies. It’s time to start getting in gear and planning some trips to Appalachia to make more pictures and work on my project. I snapped the above image when then kids and I visited the newly reopened and renovated North Carolina Museum of Art. Spectacular.

The last 45 days have been tough for me (and my family). I’ve had to confront some demons that I’ve just chosen to not deal with for a long, long time. Like nearly three decades. For me, there’s hope in Jesus Christ. He is the only one who could possibly take my wreck of a life and use it. Healing can only begin when things are truly dealt with at a core level. I realized that at 35, I’d never really let anyone into my life. Anyone. For me, healing has begun, but it’s a s-l-o-w process. I’m encouraged by knowing that I don’t have to rush to get better, but that I can choose each day to honor God and serve others or serve myself. I much prefer to honor Him and serve Him.

OK, so there’s that. Some new photo book acquisitions over the last month or so:

Builder Levy, Images of Appalachian Coalfields
Temple University Press, 1989
Hardcover | 124 pages | $56.49 (with shipping)
Stay tuned for an interview with Builder Levy right here on Take Your Camera for a Walk.

Rob Amberg, Sodom Laurel Album
A Lyndhurst Book, University of North Carolina Press in association with the Center for Documentary Studies
Hardcover | 192 pages | $13.02 (with shipping)
Rob Amberg is a graduate of the Duke Center for Documentary Studies and there’s a gorgeous print from this book hanging there.

Daylight Magazine, Issue 8
Daylight Community Arts Foundation, Inc.
Magazine | 62 pages | $13.88 (with shipping)
Issue 8 includes images from Tim Hetherington‘s series Sleeping Soldiers. Beautiful, brilliant work. I got to meet Mr. Hetherington at the Full Frame Documentary Festival last month before the screening of Restrepo. Oh, and he gave me a free pass to the film. And I had a picture made with him.

If you’d like your very own promotional card from my current project, just send an email with your address to rogermayphotography[at]me[dot]com and I’ll drop one in the mail. They’re approximately 6.5″ x 5″, ink jet prints on Inkpress fine art matte (220 gsm) paper on an Epson Stylus Photo R1900. There are 15 cards available. (Mom, thanks in advance for requesting one.)

I hope to start posting more. Let’s use this as a start. Thanks for stopping by.

(From November Blues as sung by the Avett Brothers.)

I’m a horrible blogger. Just plain bad. Class ended about three weeks ago and I haven’t posted anything about it – or anything else – in eons. OK, now that that’s out of the way, on to the task at hand.

I’m lumping weeks 7 and 8 together as one was sort of preparation for the other. Our final class was the presentation portion of what project we plan to undertake. It was great to see and hear everyone’s ideas sort of start to come to life in such a short period of time. Some of us came to the class with an idea already in mind, while others weren’t sure of what they wanted to pursue. I found that the idea I had in the beginning changed over time into something I feel is more true, more refined, and will ultimately reflect the human element of my subject. I’ll write more about that later as the project matures.

To the three people that may even be reading this, I have to suggest Joy’s class to you. The Center for Documentary studies, through Joy’s class, does an incredible job of show and tell with documentary work. This class will help you think about things in entirely different ways, some more challenging than others, and hone your vision and ideas as a documentarian. I felt like I grew a lot in a short period of time and now it’s time to continue that growth as I plan and work on my project.

Do the work.