Smiles from the threshold of the year to come . . .

My Year in Review: Instagram 2020

My Year in Review . . . my look back on the pictures I posted during this year of COVID that so many good people on Instagram liked. 2020 has been a time such as few of us have ever seen.Years ago I worked for the photographer Paul Caponigro who so often admonished me that when the world hands you excrement—return beauty.

And while, because of present circumstances, I had only a brief moment to make pictures for our Native American portrait project this year, I was called by the muses to turn my camera elsewhere. The beautiful flowers in my wife’s garden, the magnificent summer skies of Santa Fe and even the antics of our new puppy Brownie all caught my attention this past year and I have posted a few of these. And in the throes of it all I surprisingly and wonderfully and gratefully celebrated 45 years behind the lens with the publication of a new book, The Light of Days Gone By. And so much more. I stand in awe that even during the worst year imaginable, beauty found its way through it all, revealed itself and asked to be shared.

Brownie at Fifteen Weeks, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Lillies and Eucalyptus Leaves, Covid Hibernation Project, Santa Fe, New Mexico

I think fondly of you all out there and while I have had the privilege of meeting only a few of you, I feel like I know you all if even just a little, through the images you post and the kind words you share—the beauty that exists in all our lives that we share almost everyday here in this virtual yet seemingly real world of Instagram. And so I thank you most humbly and most gratefully for your support of my work. I so thoroughly enjoy the kind words that you leave about my pictures and I appreciate all the ❤️’s too. You have lightened the load of this terrible year immeasurably.

Calvert’s Son C.J. in Plains Dance Regalia, Diné for the Native Light Photo Collaboration

And so the new year begins or at least it does tomorrow. I leave you with this quote, the last I share for this year, a favorite of mine by Alfred Lord Tennyson:

“Hope
Smiles from the threshold of the year to come,
Whispering 'it will be happier'...”

With all best wishes,

Craig