Mar 28

Mar 28 Acceptance

When we entered Shelter At Home in Los Angeles in March of 2020, I saw my artist friend Bernie Dickson taking beautiful photos of her family over her Instagram story feed, documenting their journey into isolation with special needs kids. I urged her to keep going, and asked her to let me lay them out in a photography book once she had enough pieces to pull from. The personal, intimate quality of these images made them an absolute pleasure to sift through. I love book design, pulling out a thread of relationships through harmonies and dissonances in photographs.

I love the image of the boys on the cover - we see them through a shower door, as the glass is fogging and blurring their images. Through clear areas we see sharper detail in parts and pieces. The droplets of water on the glass adorn them like jeweled light; their joy is magical.

She and her husband each wrote statements about their relationship with their children and how they have come to accept the way their world was ultimately transformed into a foreign landscape in which to find unexpected beauty within.

We pulled a few quotes that paired well with the photos, and it took shape as a gorgeous piece of art and a family heirloom.

It has always inspired me the way my friend has worked to create her reality through the decisions of her perception - that optimism and joy are happy if not always easy choices. That pain and sadness can be embraced and neutralized with acknowledgment, with acceptance.