Photo by Michael Clemens
Last week while I was checking out Farmyard Darlings new shop in downtown Lafayette I met a Lafayette photographer, Michael Clemens, who creates Day in the Life photo essays for families where he captures candid family moments throughout the day, from the moment the kids wake up until they go to sleep. Check out his incredible photographs being featured at Farmyard Darlings new shop as well as on his website, appropriately named Sees the Day, here. I’ve included some of his photographs here as well as an essay he wrote describing what inspired him.
Photo by Michael Clemens
Michael Clemens writes:
I am a local Lafayette dad with two girls. The idea of the “Day in the Life” shoot came from something my wife said. You see, we have this little table in our living room that the girls “live” at.
They eat, do crafts, play games. . you name it. It is always a crusty mess. My wife was complaining about it one day as it always tended to make our house look messier than it actually was.
I said “Well, they’re getting so big now, why don’t we just get rid of it”? With welled up eyes, she looked at me and said “But that’s their table! If we get rid of it, then that chapter of their lives is over. I want to remember what today was like”!
That’s how this “Day in the Life” photo essay was born. It’s about documenting those seemingly mundane things that you think you’ll never forget. Or, the things you didn’t know you should remember. You son sitting in the same corner of the couch, your little girl standing on her tippy toes while brushing her teeth so she can see into the mirror, the snuggling with you kids in your bed while reading bed time stories. . .
Photographs are what you have left when even the most important memories begin to fade.
Photo by Michael Clemens
Preserving those moments are even more important to me because I’ve lost so many people in my life. I lost my dad when I was 9, my mom when I was 24, my little sister when I was 36 and grandparents, aunts , uncles and cousins along the way. I WISH I had something like this from when I was a kid. . . the ability to look back at my life and not just those very muffled and blurry shapes in my head.
And as a parent, you get so wrapped up in your daily life. . . rushing out of the door to get to carpool, going from baseball, to soccer, to swimming. . . .haircuts, music lessons, supermarket. . . . you blink and your kids are off to college . My daughters are 10 and 11, and I SWEAR, I just brought them home from the hospital. It just goes so fast.
Ferris Bueller says : “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
I try and not let you miss it.
It’s your history. . . .this is your history book.
Photo by Michael Clemens
