The Story We Tell

I watched Val Kilmer’s autobiographical documentary, which is subtitled: “The life we live is the story we tell.”

“The life we live is the story we tell.”

-Val Kilmer (www.valkilmer.com)

it is that subtitle that really influenced me.

Val Kilmer carried a video camera with him since he was a kid. He recorded his life and packaged it into the story that became the documentary. It’s fascinating, powerful, emotional, insightful, and shows that Val Kilmer is more than just an actor – he’s an artist.

But what I found personally fascinating was that all that video footage could tell many stories. It could tell a curated story, like the documentary itself. Or, gathering all the footage of one person – or one subject – might tell something of that persons story. Or the complete uncurated archive of video footage might tells its own story, one that even the videographer can’t control or direct.

Val Kilmer has inspired me to carry and use my camera every day.

So starting on June 16, 2022, I’m carrying a camera on my shoulder everywhere I go.

I’m going to document my life, from my perspective, whatever that story turns out to be about.

Since starting this project, I’ve been taking a lot of pictures. And doing my best to curate my archives into various content groupings and stories…weekly themes blog posts, portfolio collections, etc.

But these photographs tell a story I can’t direct or control. Look at these photographs, see my story for yourself, and feel free to leave comments about the photos or the story you see.

The images are curated only chronologically. You can look at some of the curations though: my portfolio collections are here. The weekly themed blog posts can be seen here.

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