Here we are, the second half of 2022. The rest of this year is a new season for my life and my career.
My husband I welcomed a new member into our family at the end of July and we are fully soaking in the moments we have with him.
I am slowly easing myself back into work and taking on assignments in September and October. I have had the most incredible support during this fourth trimester.
These past few weeks have been a time of unlearning, openness and surrender as I've had to work with a new little human being that is completely dependent on me.
The direction of this newsletter may change a bit. Work is important, but I also am hoping this can be a space for my scattered thoughts beyond work. I would totally understand if this isn't for you, but I don't want to be defined and limited to the work I produce.
I hope to be more diligent with this newsletter so I can connect with you in a more “personal” way. I’m still working out the best way to make this worth reading and subscribing to. I’m open to any and all feedback!
Recent Work…
Though I haven't been working these past few weeks, I still find a thrill in creating work for myself and to share with others.
08.11.2022 - Two weeks postpartum - there has been no time to process the pregnancy and the whole birth experience because we’ve naturally moved on to this next phase.
Two week old baby in our lives - we were thrown into the deep end but strangely staying afloat
The feelings of isolation and loneliness come in waves. I have the best support system and people checking in, but it still feels like I’m in a dark cave. It’s clear to me that mothering needs to be done in community; mothering as human interdependence.
“In community, life feels less exhausting, it’s weightiness distributed. Not too much to bear, bolstered by love.
Building relationships can be messy and awkward. Interdependence requires real communication, empathy, sorting through calendars and logistics. It means misunderstandings, problem solving, asking and listening, not just popping in and dropping off, but sometimes lingering and running late.”
Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change by Angela Garbes
Early this year March I worked with Pivotal Ventures and Women Photograph on a short video about caregiving. I met with a single mother in Philadelphia. Her son was diagnosed with autism when he was around one and she has to learn to navigate being his sole caretaker.
At the end of June, I met Korean American chef Peter Serpico for a story about Korean American adoptee chefs. Him and his daughter cooked hobak jeon together for the piece. The piece explores the complicated relationship many adoptees have with food and what it means to cook authentic food.
‘An estimated 200,000 Koreans have been adopted globally since 1953, roughly three-quarters of them by parents in the United States, said Eleana J. Kim, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of “Adopted Territory: Transnational Korean Adoptees and the Politics of Belonging.”
The aftermath of the Korean War left some children, many of foreign paternity, abandoned because of poverty and racial prejudice, she said. “During the subsequent decades, in the absence of South Korea’s welfare support for poor families, children born in poverty were quickly shuttled to overseas adoption agencies, which viewed South Korea as the main source of adoptable children.”
In the United States, the number of babies available for adoption dropped in the 1970s, and American families turned to those agencies. Today, Korean adoptees remain the nation’s largest group of transracial adoptees.’
Words: Elyse Inamine
Photo editing: Kim Gougenheim
Recent Thoughts…
I started this newsletter because I was frustrated with Instagram. I think a lot of us are these days. For a lot of us photographers, it’s no longer the best place to promote and share our work. I find myself tapping through IG stories more than scrolling through. TBH, I’ve even muted a lot of people to avoid spending so much time on the app.
I have mixed feelings about being on Instagram. There are times I feel like it serves me - the conversations I have, the tidbits I learn from others, finding new photographers and artists to follow etc. But it also takes away SO much time.
Ashlee Gaad writes about this place of tension she is in with Instagram as a writer. I feel the exact same tension as as photographer.
“People argue social media is a tool. You can use the tool however you want! they tell me. It’s free!
Is it … free?
Because I’m starting to get real honest about the cost of being on Instagram. The wasted minutes. The energy draining from my mind. The anxiety. The distractions. The constant noise.
Instagram doesn’t feel free to me anymore.
It actually feels like it’s costing me a lot.”
I don’t see myself fully quitting but the way I use it has changed over the years.
Other recent things…
Listening to:
Archetypes by Meghan Markle
Finished watching:
Extraordinary Attorney Woo on Netflix (The series follows 27-year-old Woo Young Woo (Park Eun-bin), a lawyer and Seoul National University law school graduate with an impressive memory, amazingly creative thought process, and a 164 IQ score. She also has autism, and the show breaks down misconceptions of autistic people lacking ‘social skills’ and ‘emotional intelligence.’)
Currently reading:
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
Counterfeit by Kirstin Chen
Thanks for spending time looking and reading through ✌🏼💫