Oh hey :) I’m Sarah Joy, a family photographer in Dallas, Oregon, serving the Salem and Portland areas.
I have always had a good memory. No really, it’s really good. A very early and very vivid memory, one that was personality shaping for me, happened on my birthday. It was October 11, 1988, and my newly-turned-three-year-old-self was laying on the couch, full-on pout posture, while my Mom vacuumed (a birthday deserves a fresh carpet). Fall light was coming in the front screen door. We lived in Arizona, so the door was wide open, letting fresh air in that smelled of alfalfa and sheep, despite it being smack dab in the middle of Fall. Our small country house smelled of my chocolate cake baking, and it was a silvery, glowy morning. BUT, I was upset. I was very upset. Mom turned off the vacuum and asked me what was wrong. You see, when I was my two-year-old self, I made a very important goal and I hadn’t yet achieved it. I told myself at that young age that I would DEFINITELY, without a doubt, catch a bird in my hands before I turned three. But, today was my birthday, and I had not caught that bird. So, I looked at my mom, tears in my eyes, and said, “It’s my birthday, and the birds fly too fast.”
The passing of time has always been painful for me. I repeat daily mantras to myself now that I’m in my 30s to help me stop mourning the passing of precious time, but the fact is, the part of me that holds on to moments for dear life is something that has always been a part of my soul. I knew at just three years old that time flies, and birds fly too! If we want to catch either one of those things, we need to act. So, I have learned to catch memories. I photograph life. I see memories on my walls, and when I stop and stare, that time swirls around in my head and is breathed back into the present.
Catching flying memories is my kind of magic, but some people call it photography.
...and I eventually caught a chicken when I was 11. I named him Chip. Also, I have had THAT same chocolate cake Mom baked on my third birthday for every birthday since. Nostalgia is my middle name.