03.16.2007

I wasn't going to post these photos. I thought, as a photojournalist, wouldn't it be unethical to post photos of my own family on my website along with other work I do as an objective, unbiased journalist?

So I was wrestling with this when I went to the NPPA Northern Short Course in Warwick, RI, and saw Sam Abell's presentation of his book "The Photographic Life."

I'll admit, my first reaction to his presentation was "Okay.... and....?"

It wasn't until I came back home and looked at my photos from my visit to Panama back in January that it all came together for me. As a photographer, you're visually documenting things. News, weddings, deaths... all these things concern other people. The last thing you think about is documenting your own life, but I guess in essence that is exactly what you're doing. You can look back at photos and have these instant memories and connections to the time in your life that you shot them. I remember reading somewhere that a photograph can tell as much about the photographer as it does the subject. At the time, I disagreed.

The first time I went to Panama was when I was two months old. I see my Panamanian family more often than I see my American family. And though I don't speak Spanish fluently, and though my passport says "United States" on it and I was born in the States, Panama is home. And by home, I mean the place I can go and people see me as me... not as a foreigner, not as a photojournalist, but as my mother's daughter, the same person I was the day I was born.

So, here are some pieces of home: San Francisco de Veraguas. Enjoy.

-jt