inspire :: gray is okay

photo credit: Time for Tea 3

Jackie Dives from Divesin recently started a Flickr Group called Gray is Okay. It is a photography pool for the things in life that the online world tends to forget about. It is for things that are real, and not necessarily pretty. This project was inspired by the following things:

In the words of Jackie ...

1. It stuck with me when, after being dumped recently, someone pointed out that you can’t judge people’s (ie. ex-boyfriend’s) lives based on the pictures they post on Facebook, because people post birthday parties and barbeques, not changing a flat tire in the pouring rain, or putting their cat down.

2. I read an article on “Marthettes,” women who have beautiful crafty lives of perfection, and who share these lives on their stunning, pastel-infused blogs, which the article suggests average women like myself will read and inevitably compare ourselves to, leading us to feel inadequate. The article made me think two things.

a) I will be the first to admit that I can often feel low after reading a string of these blogs.

b) The reality is that what these women choose to show on their blogs is only half of their lives. No one lives a 100% peaches and cream life. And quite frankly, if they do, I feel sorry for them. I often find inspiration and beauty in things that are ugly or awkward. Which leads me to number 3…

3. Nan Goldin.

In a world where life is easy to document, I think that it’s a shame that it seems to be people’s goal to post only what is appealing to look at.

So this is me encouraging you to post photographs of your failed baking, spilled red wine on a white carpet, your skinned knee after a fall, and the three weeks of dishes that have piled up after a loved one has died.

When life is shitty s l o w d o w n a little, and take note of it. Snap a picture. It might give you some perspective.

So the purpose of this photo pool, if not only for a place to put these images, is to hopefully glean something from these sh***y experiences. And maybe if a snapshot is taken, it can be looked at after the fact, and inspire something greater. When observing something sh***y after it has happened, you might find some beauty in it.

Please include a description of what is going on in each photograph.