So for the past few days, I suddenly had a creative burst and made some major headway with my first photography book. This book includes photographs taken from our investigations on Paranormal State.
It’s strange sifting through the collection of digital memories. A photo that you took years ago can suddenly bring back a flood of emotions. Anger and resentment from a person who is no longer in your life, yet stands among the photos in a pixelated form. The sadness and frustration from our clients as they reach the breaking point with their paranormal problem. The smiles and laughter from the adventures and the jokes. And even the occasional, “I don’t recall taking this and I don’t know what I’m looking at here…”
People often ask me if I ever captured something paranormal. They seek proof of the afterlife, but what about proof of life? Life itself is paranormal. I went to college for a finance degree and instead of working for a bank or some smug corporation, I travelled the country and helped dozens of families. That is paranormal.
One thing that stands out is camaraderie. We are more than just paranormal investigators. We are a paranormal team. You don’t deal with a weeping client or the negative entities on your own, but together. If anything, that is one message we try to show, without speaking it. When we leave the house, the family needs to work together on this.
One photograph that I keep stumbling back to is where Ryan volunteered to combine the Ganzfield technique with the Shakti helmet. The photograph captured right after he said he heard a deafening scream shows him, startled, a priest encouraging whatever is there to come out, and a camera man. It speaks volumes to me personally, as right before the entire group was divided on the idea of him doing this in the first place. In fact on that investigation I was so concerned that I threatened to walk away. But in the end, we stuck together.
My thoughts on photography will continue to change, as will the meanings of the photographs I take. For now, I will continue to do my best to speak those thousand words, without uttering a single syllable
