I have been sharing life through photography since Da gave me a camera when I was 8 years old. Through high school, my college newspaper, The Tennessean, when I started freelancing and when we were all friends with Tom on Myspace.
Bedroom mirror self-portrait, gilliam.life blog 2008.
Of course, those were the days of blogging, and I was ALL IN as a way to share with family until 2013 when my content was stolen. In the 10 years before social media and blogging, I was a photojournalist, so naturally, I spoke out about the shortcomings of protections online for parents and photographers. Privacy, copyright infringement, our online rights… I’ll sum up my little cautionary tale with this: if you don’t want it out there, don’t put it out there.
But that’s pretty boring.
That ordeal changed my approach to how I shared my work. My focus shifted from sharing my work via my life to sharing life through my work.
As our family grew, so did work: photographing clothing brands, personal brands, kids, weddings, workshops, and any freelance work that meant life and home felt balanced.
Album cover shoot in Nashville.
2011-2016, shooting weddings with my dear friend, Shea.
In 2016, we built a little place in the country and started a life out there that inspired us to host workshops like Axe Camp, Tree ID, and Dark Room Photography. I documented and dreamed up ways to photograph folks on our little homestead.
The farmhouse, 2016.
Home Darkroom
Photography continued: from working with global companies to capturing friends and family in our wildflower field and everything in between.
For Cushman & Wakefield
For Brandie and Phil
And in early 2020, I was on the eve of an exciting new project.
The year-long project halted in March when the pandemic hit home. But just a few months later, it was able to come to life because it was an outdoor, public art exhibit. Portrait Park featured hundreds of faces from our community.
Portrait Park made its way through city and county parks for more than a year.
The project showed me a lot about my community: namely, our resilience. And it gave way to a new series as the effects of the pandemic hit our hometown small businesses- like so many- hard. Mine included.
Slowly, life began to look familiar again.
Imagery for the book, The Kindred Life
And pathways opened into new work and new ways of sharing. Storytelling through social media in my hometown, working with friends, and in places I grew up loving and exploring and knowing like you do when you’ve been in a place for your whole life.
Tennessee for McEwen Group
Photography has taken me to so many beautiful and unique places and so many incredible and interesting people.
I am grateful to share this life this way.
-sb