Why I Love Wall Portraits

I was recently having a conversation with a dear friend about my business and what I create. We were talking about why I don’t just offer digital files but instead focus on beautiful heirloom products that won’t disappear on a hard drive somewhere. I told her about how I think portraiture is so important and that they should be loved and displayed instead of hidden and lost. Then she said something that changed my world. She said “I don’t think people see their family pictures as art.”

My little heart broke a little because I realized that she was right. A lot of people don’t see their family pictures as art. The thing is, I truly believe that life is art. That family love is the most beautiful and important thing on the planet. That babies grow into adults and the memories leftover from childhood should be cherished.

My apartment is covered with my family portraits…with my mom and brother in my childhood home. With my dad and I fishing at a pond in our neighborhood. With photos of my husband and I laughing and hugging. These are my treasures, my favorite works of art. These are the reason I love wall portraits.

Much Love, Kiana M.

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Where I’m Meant to Be

We had a guest speaker the other day in my photography class and he accidentally reaffirmed that I am exactly where I need to be. He stood before me and talked about our responsibility to the world, our responsibility as artists to change it. He said that all humans care about is five things: sex, money, prestige, property, and social acceptability. He said that we had to have these elements in our images to sell a universal message.

I don’t except this as truth. I realized that I don’t want to be important, I don’t want to change the world. I want to be important to a mother who lets me photograph her child. I want to be important to a bride on the most beautiful day of her life. I want to capture family. I believe that LOVE is a universal message. That connections and ties and beauty and truth are found in the honesty of our beautiful relationships. I reject that human beings care only about money. I believe we care about money because we want to care for those we love. Love, love love. Love is all we need.

This is my truth. I am where I’m meant to be and doing what I should be doing. This is what my photography stands for. <3

Copyright: Kiana McCrackin

Jumping Into the Unkown

156The night I found out my Grandpa was dying was awful. I tossed and turned. I cried. I panicked. I wished I was home. Finally, around 2 a.m. I fell into a fitful sleep.

Fast forward 1.5 hours…I’m awake. At 3:30 a.m. I gathered an anicent c.d player, my blanket, and all my tears as I headed down to the dock.  As I stood at the end of the withered wood I watched the seagulls flying against the wind. I thought this was so stupid. “Just fly with the wind!” I told them, as if they could understand. However an hour later after I had jumped into the cold morning water in my pajamas I realized I was a hyppocrite. The storm the gulls had been fighting created waves which I was now swimming against…how ironic. So as I swam, the sun rose, and I noticed that life is sort of all about swimming against the waves and laughing the whole time (because water is splashing in your face duh! More then that though, life is about jumping into the unknown because you know there is an intertube near by.

So fight the wind stupid seagulls. And I’ll be the idiot fighting the waves that I jumped into….at least I’m laughing =)