I’m writing letters to my former self in an effort to get my life together as a creative person and work toward my best art.
There are letters to the little kid dreaming of becoming a photographer, the teenager choosing drugs over creativity, and the grown-up panicking over his first portrait photography job.
This is an exercise in examining my life. Remembering who I used to be and the dreams I used to have. Reflecting on who I've actually become. And, most of all, who I could become.
My hope is that in sharing these letters with you, you might find a reason to examine yourself as a creative person and whatever other roles you play in life.
Dear, 10-year-old Matthew.
You don't even have your first camera yet but you're already becoming a photographer. Don't worry, the camera is in the mail and it will be there in a couple of days.
Remember that feeling you had at Niagara Falls when you started talking about getting a camera? That was the beginning. People call it different things; passion, inspiration, the Muse. Whatever we call it, in that moment you became a photographer.
Now that you’ve ordered a camera, you lay awake dreaming of what you'll do with it. The people and places you imagine photographing—it all happens, and it all works out.
In your little mind, there’s no doubt that it all works out. And, even if you knew what I know now, you’d have just kept on dreaming anyway.
It does work out, but there are difficult and painful moments along the way. I can’t warn you about them, they just have to happen. It’s all part of how it works out.
I guess I'm writing because I need your help. You know how to dream. I’ve become so caught up with paying the bills that I’ve forgotten how to dream.
If we get your dreams and my ability on the same page, we can write a beautiful story.
From,
Older Mat
There's a beautiful book called "Boy with a camera". Perhaps that's the time we all should have been photographers