My Day with We Are the Parsons {Workshop Recap}

If you aren’t familiar with the images made by the image-creators known as We are the Parsons, then before you read one word further into this post, you need to click on over to Jeremy and Ashley Parson’s site just as fast as you possibly can.   The word “epic” gets thrown around like loose change these days, but their work truly is THAT.   You don’t have to just take my word for it, they were also named one of the top 10 photographers in the world by American Photo Magazine this past year.  They are unrivaled story-tellers and lovers of love, and even more incredible people than they are photographers.   I have actually known Jeremy’s family since I was a very young, awkward middle school girl and can truly attest that they are able to do what they do because of their values, and because their “whys” infuse every part of the “hows” of their business.

I also know this because last week, on Labor Day, I had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attend an all-day workshop they hosted for photographers in the Boston area.  We spent eight intense, amazing hours together going deep into their story and our stories – all of us doing our best to answer the big question of “Why?”.  Why do we take pictures? What does creating these images mean to us, to those in front of our lens?  Then, from there, collaboratively discussing how all of our whys, personal and professional, can and should inform what our images look like, what our businesses stand for, and why we continue to go back for more.  Spoiler alert: it ain’t all about the Benjamins, baby.

What I walked away with from my time with Jer and Ash was a better and more true sense of who I am as a photographer, who I hope to be, why I’m doing this and how that will make me better at what I do.  It’s so rare, in my life at least, to really take the time reflect on these big questions and then think long and hard about how it translates in practical changes and growth.   The Parsons have a very authentic way of helping artists get to the heart of who they are, I think, because they are so in tune with themselves and what it is they do and why.  You will not meet two more genuine, thoughtful people, or two more amazingly talented photographers. They are truly passionate about connecting with other photographers and helping them make the most of how they are as individual in order to take their work to the next level – they aren’t about “do x, y and z, so you can be just like us” or “shoot this way or that way, so you can be featured on blah-blah’s blog”.  That is the anti-thesis to what they’re about, which is ironic for photographers so acclaimed.  They actually live much of their professional life “off the grid” of what other photographers are doing, and just march to the beat of their own drum – and that really sets them apart.   I’m sure anyone who has ever had them photograph their wedding day knows exactly what I’m talking about.

If you’re a photographer and this sparks your interest or sounds right about up your alley, Jeremy and Ashley will be hosting/teaching a just-announced class over at the DEFINE School, which you can read more about here (my love for the DEFINE School and what they’re all about is a whole other post that I really need to write …).  The course description reads very much like an extended, more in-depth version of our one-day workshop, and it is sure to be IN-CRED-IBLE and worth every dollar.  I hope, one day, to make it to one of their three-day Don’t Give Up Project retreats in Divide, Colorado.  I hear the phrase “life changing” is not hyperbole.  (No, I am not the Parsons’ PR person, but I could be!).

What I also walked away with from the day were some amazing new friends in my fellow photographers in attendance.  It was such an intense, rapid-fire way to get to really know someone, and I don’t have anything I can compare the day to in recent memory that comes close to how meaningful it was for me to hear their stories and get to know them as people and artists.   Big hugs, love and shout-outs to the tremendously talented and bad-ass Isabel Furie, Kristin Chalmers, Kristen Schueler and Meg Belanger.  Their work is absolutely inspiring to me and I know that we will all be each other’s biggest cheerleaders in our continued journeys as photographers in the greater Boston area and beyond.  <3 you guys! (Um, and glad I hadn’t seen all of your work prior to Labor Day or I would have been too intimidated up the wazoo in advance by all your talent — eeee gads!)

And now, some photos from the day — because this IS a photography blog, after all: