I don’t spend a lot of time perusing other wedding photographers (more on that next week), but there are a couple people I follow simply because they’re so inspiring, I couldn’t possibly stay away. One of these people is photographer/writer Anne Almasy, who I love almost more for her writing than her photographs (almost – but maybe?? Check her out. How could you possibly choose??) She’s a frequent contributor over at DEDPXL, one of the few blogs I actually try to keep up with regularly. Reading her pieces Of Melancholy and Magic today, this quote jumped out at me in particular:

“Pick up your running shoes, your pastry cutter, your guitar, your knitting needles, your chisel. If we artists are prone to melancholy, we are also prone to miracles. We may sway towards darkness, but on the opposite end of the pendulum’s arc, there is light.”

I think a lot of artists – or at least, the ones I know (though the sentiment does seem rather universal) – feel that dark pull of helplessness, hopelessness; that your life is focused around your art, but how much does your art really matter? Does it really matter? What are you accomplishing? If your life is your art and your art isn’t doing anything – then what are YOU doing at all?

But our work does matter. We matter. We capture moments that flit by, unnoticed, we make the world we live in more beautiful, fill it with color and light.

It’s a hard thing to tell yourself every day, but absolutely worth the reminder.