a new prized posession and a call for volunteers

my friend and co-photographer lucy let me photograph her with her bear (whose name happens to be bear) last night as part of the prized possessions project.

over the next couple of months i will need to produce five more images for this series, so if any of you are interested in being photographed with your favorite thing, leave a comment or email me!

here is the first draft of my artist's statement about this series...just in case you were curious about my theories about this.

thought the scriptures warn us to "lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven" (Matt 6:19-20), we all have prized possessions. For many, these objects are not "treasures" in the worldly sense--some may not even be beautiful--but we hold them dear because they tie us to a certain experience, a particular time, place, or person. in essence, it is not the object itself that is most important to us, but what the object represents. the experiences, not the objects, are what make life sweet, and are the only things we will take with us when we leave this world.
in this project, i've sought to catalogue not only prized possessions, but also the stories behind them. this has forced me, as well as my subjects, to think deeply about the objects that are important to us and the reasons we hold them dear.