“The heart of the person before you is a mirror. See there your own form.” 
-Shinto Saying

Over the past year I've made it a goal to sift back through 1000s of photos from the past 7+ years, images that span 3 continents, over 21 countries and countless cultures and people. I began with old assignments from WKU, projects from 3 newspapers, then jumped to South Korea, SE Asia and finally Africa. During this process, I began to recognize images that felt similar to me, the gesture of the hand throw back in a moment of abundant joy is identical in a young American girl as it is in novice Buddhist monk in Thailand. I've sat in silence with wise women watching the world go by from the comfort of their front porch in a remote Karen Hill Tribe in Northern Thailand with Mamma Mo's work roughened hand holding mine and in the Appalachian region of Eastern Kentucky with Aunt Susie silently nodding off. Kind, strong women with the lines of hardship and joy etched into their faces. I also began to see amusing and sometimes disturbing juxtaposition of every day life; jobs, expectations of motherhood and the expression of love. 

Over the next few weeks I'm going to post the best of these, combining images from all over the world into diptychs that begin to contextualize individual lives into a universal tapestry. 

I hope you enjoy! 

(Left) A Young Nepali mother at Boudhanath Stupa, Kathmandu, Nepal.
(Right) Jeane, 2, and her mother, Deanne York prepare for the Cordell Hull Festival Pageant in Byrdstown Tenn.

SP#16

Hello crazy world! 

Finally SP#16 is up live, it just took a wee bit longer than expected thanks to the wild ways of life.

But sometimes, little speed bumps come along in your busy world and you get the chance to sift through all the road you've traveled and let all the lessons learned settle around you like dust (Can't tell I'm itching for a road trip now can ya?;) This week the lessons are finally settling and I can't say I've learned them right, but I'm working on it! With a little down time comes inspiration and this idea for self portrait #16 which does well in summing up the past month for me both physically and emotionally. But as it turns out, I'm still in one piece! ;)

I would like to send a shout out to Lowell, thanks for lending your spooky hands girl! ;)

After nearly 5 months of this self portrait craziness, Inge and I are still plugging away here! There may be some speed bumps on our self portrait road thanks to all the new adventures life is throwing our way, but this journey is far from over!

Be sure to check out Inge Kathleen's beautiful journey at her new location in Thailand!

Self Potrait #9

I've had a ton of different portrait ideas pouring into my brain since we started this self portrait craziness. Part of the challenge for me, is to see if I can take what I have in my current surroundings vs. what I can do in photoshop, and create my ideas. Well, with this one I definitely broke my promise with Liz Lauer to not be so creepy. Sorry Liz!
I figured I tackled the closet last week and of course the natural progression from there is definitely bottles... ;) My concept was pent up emotion, how we bottle up our emotions and shove them down deep inside...I'm sure if we could see our internal storage system of things we've failed to deal with, it would look something like this. Only with TONS more bottles...hmm...maybe that would help this image...This idea of heads in a jar isn't that novel and I'm still tweaking the outcome (all suggestions and comments welcome!), but the feeling of being able to have this portrait in my mind (yes ok maybe i'm a wee twisted) and figuring out the way to make it reality was challenge enough for me to tackle it.
Oh, one more thing:
Dear Photoshop, I ❥ you!

Take a peek at a 1810 Inge Kathleen here! :)

FRUIT! I'm a fruit-a-holic! Me and fruit are one...well at least when it's inside my tummy that is. As you can imagine, I am in fruit heaven here in Thailand! Little fruit ladies can spot a softy a mile away and start waggling their eyebrows and hand fulls of papayas and mangos in my direction when they see me coming.

My good friend Reid likes to say, "You are what you eat." Yes, I totally embrace my fruity side and just for future reference, if you need to ask a favor or have bad news, or good news, or no news...(hmm getting off track here)..it's ALWAYS better accompanied with a basket of fruit...hand fulls of mangos...pineapples peaking out of your bag!! Just sayin'...

Self Portrait #7

Whew, busy busy whirlwind weekend with loads of good things happening, but not so much time for shooting. I'm a bit of a gimp these days with two lovely scraped up legs that make me hobble around like a 90yr old, but I made it to first base, I did! (I'm maybe a little too competitive when it comes to sports) So this is a bit of an older self portrait that will have to be a stand in until the old ticker gets back to...ticking! ;)

Anyone who knows me knows I can kill the most hardy of plants. My sisters even went as far as to buy me cacti for a birthday prezzie because they knew how much I LOVE green things in the house, but it's the remembering to water them bites me in the butt. Let's just say the cactus was found dead as a doornail a few months later. There is just no Mandy-proof plants on the market these days! My trail of plant carnage has left me with minus karma points and I've spent a life time trying to make sweet to mother nature. But really, whose fault is it that I was born with a brown thumb anyways?! *cough cough nudge nudge*

Check out the Inge Binga self portrait greatness of the week!

"Home"
Being footloose for a few years will make you start to think about the word, "home.' It could be your memory of that grey asbestos childhood home in Lynn IN, with its huge old dilapidated barn whose sloping roof you used as a sledding hill (because Indiana is so flat they couldn't manage to make any natural ones of their own). Until your mom found the bum ripped out of every single one of your snow pants from the roofing nails and banned your slipping, sliding fun permanently. Or maybe it's that big white house near Williamsburg, IN, where you used to lay on the warm, broad back of your old quarter horse for hours watching the clouds drift by and listening to him munch and gurgle. Or all the number of apartments you lived in for college, internships? Maybe it's that tiny one roomed Yangsu-ri digs (that turns into an icebox in the winter) with the rows of windows looking out over the Korean village square and you could hear soju soaked Korean shouts in the wee hours of the morning. Or Chiang Mai, where two dogs wait for you to come home with sad brown eyes (my personal weakness) and mangoes fall from trees in the middle of the night sounding like bombs on the tin roof, but make you dream dreams of sweet, sweet mango-ness.
Really, you set up home in all sorts of places with all sorts of different objects; sometimes even other people's objects, and you start to realize that home isn't a place or time, isn't a state or country, or even a house.
Home is where the heart is!
(Oh yes, I totally was just that corny!;)

Does anyone else get the odd compulsion to cart out all the living room furniture to the yard and set up shop? I'm telling ya, it's the best seat in the...(wait for it)...home! ;)

Ever seen Inge Kathleen's barbarian side? Nope?! Me either! Take a peak here!