dont smile now – Shani Barel Photography- Los Angeles Based Photographer » modern photography with a twist of sarcasm

The people who’ve known me in the past 10 years, dont know that I spent the first thirty years of my life somewhat as a wonderer, rootless, always on the move kind of gal – until I came to the states, I hadn’t lived in one home for more than two years – no, it’s not as dramatic as it sounds, no foster care, nor was I a military brat.. it just happened. Partly for my dad’s work, partly random circumstances, partly parents divorcing, partly school.. etc… I remember  as a kid, moving to a new school yet again, at second grade, meeting kids that had known each other since preschool…who lived in the same neighborhood, and of course, once I moved again, left them behind, only to reunite with some of them in high school, or on facebook, and one even turned out to live but a few miles from here…but at the end of the day – my best friends growing up were my brother and our cousins – they were the constant kids in our lives, and while we are now spread all over the world  - and most of us have kids of our own – we pick up the conversation we we left it like a million years ago. So now that I have lived in the states for 12 years, and in my current home (and neighborhood and city and state and continent) for a whole full  7 years, it feel strange when people move away. I am so used to it being me the one moving. And now I am the one feeling left behind. But with the same feeling of being left out and others enjoying a wonderful adventure, I have learned to embrace the security of knowing, that I live here, and plan to live here for a while.  (one down side of staying in one place for more than one year is the stuff you dont get rid of – honestly, I have no idea how my parents packed and unpacked our lives every two years, without living out of boxes, and always making our home feel like we’ve always lived there – but one thing we never had was clutter!) Anyway, having lived in one place for long enough, I’ve actually made friends, and have had friends move away… and thanks to my job, I get to see some of them at least once a year.. so my dear friends and supporters, who even after moving away, make sure to keep me in their hearts and I get to connect with them in the purest of ways that I know – by photographing them and creating our visual memory, that with time, becomes the actual memory.