New Adventures
The next adventure in my life is taking me to New Zealand, which I am very excited about. But the thing with new adventures, especially ones that are open-ended and on the other side of the world, you have to say goodbye to a lot of people. I have never been a big fan of goodbyes, even small see-you-tomorrow goodbyes, I am a big fan of just leaving (as most of my friends have gotten used to).
As I prepare for this new chapter in my life, I had to leave my job. A job that has taught me most of what I know about photography and business. Even after 5 years of college, I believe I have learned the most in this job. A job that I enjoyed, learned and grew in everyday. But mostly a job where I love the people I worked with. I have never worked at a place where I have been given so much both professionally and personally by my bosses and colleagues, where as a young college grad I have been trusted and valued. I said goodbye to these people last night and it was a very hard thing to do. In the past two and a half years I have worked at Kalman & Pabst (K&P) on and off, first as an intern, then as a freelancer, and finally as an employee. The past 11 months I have been there pretty much full-time and I have to say I couldn’t have dreamed of anything better.
Every so often in life you meet people that change your life, that push you to grow, that make you want to be a better person. K&P has 12 of those people in that building five days a week eight hours a day, and several others that walk in and out on a regular basis. I guess I am just lucky. I don’t know many people that get that at their workplace. As I think about my life in the last two and half years, these people that make up the great atmosphere of Kalman & Pabst have become apart of my family. I truly care about each and everyone of the individuals at K&P. As I walk into the Cleveland Hopkins Airport in less than a week, I will carry with me each of these people for the rest of my life.
In 2007 I started a portrait project that I have been continuing sporadically during the last 3 years. I try to photograph my family and friends, people that have influenced my life. It’s a personal project I really enjoy, but I often don’t think about the people I see everyday, because I think I always have a chance to capture them. So my last two days of work I did my best to get the 12 employees of K&P. Unfortunately, three were out of town, also there have been many freelancers and clients that come in and out of that studio, some of which have become my very good friends and I was not able to photograph them. Here are some of the many of faces of K&P.
