i set off to....

Saturday we stopped at the Family Album Project. The photographer, Uwe Ommer, traveled across the globe to make portraits of 1000 families. One hundred of them are on display at Millennium Park until October 17. They are striking and awe inspiring. They draw you in and with the few word captions below each photo, you realize how unique yet similar all families are.

This time around, I saw the panel pictured above. It outlines what Uwe hoped to achieve in this undertaking. In case you can’t read the above, here is what it says:

Uwe’s journey

I set off to:

o Drive nearly 160,000 miles all over the world
o Lose a lot of weight
o See my hair turn white
o Get married in Las Vegas
o Drive on the left, on the right, or in the middle as the local custom demands
o Encounter highway bandits and robbers
o Make friends
o Try to get an elephant to smile
o Try not to step on snakes
o Find honest, mister-fixit-everything mechanics
o Learn three words in every language
o Curse road maps
o Get lost in the wild
o Get back home safe and sound, four years later
o Succeed in making portraits of 1251 families

It made me think about this journey, adventure, undertaking, leap of faith – whatever you want to call it – and what I hope to set off to do. Need to think about it a bit. Stay tuned.

p.s. If you can’t see these amazing photographs up close and in person, you might want to check out the book.