Ashley Strong Smith
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5/19/2020 0 Comments

I can communicate in photographs, what I cannot in words AND I can communicate in words what cannot be captured in a photograph.

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I was in the middle of a coaching session with one of my all time favorite souls and coaches, Donna Bond. She asked me a question, I gave a reply, she asked me another question, then I blurted out. The specifics of the question, reply, question, I cannot remember. What I do remember and what keeps repeating in my head is my ah-ha moment realizing, ​

I can communicate in photographs, what I cannot in words AND I can communicate in words what cannot be captured in a photograph.

I kept repeating this over and over again. You mean to tell me, after all these years, after all these coaching sessions, all this development work, all the mediums that have communicated from the other side and here, here was my answer. 

For years, I’ve known there is more to that which I am sharing, so much more. That more, is my deep love, my connection to, my desire for written expression. For all too long, I thought if I didn’t focus solely on photography, this passion of a profession that I’ve turned into a full-time business, a corporation, reaching goals beyond what I imagined when I originally started, that people, the outside world wouldn’t take my photography seriously. 
That, that is so far from the truth. 
Yet, for so long, I believed it to be so. 
I believed that I could only express myself in my current art form. 
I believed that if I did multiple things, neither would be taken seriously. 
I believed that there was someone out there, who is better, who has been sharing longer, who has an audience far greater than mine. 

These beliefs, oh how these beliefs are so limiting, so far from the truth. They’ve kept me playing small, only letting small slivers of my words surface. Oh my friend, I can communicate in photographs, what I cannot in words AND I can communicate in words what cannot be captured in a photograph.  
The key word here is AND. 
The linking world. 
Both are true. 
Both are possible. 
Both are equal. 
Both are absolutely necessary for me to contribute to this world in the way that resonates most deeply with my soul. 
Both are true for the simple fact that they resonate with my entire being. 

I CAN COMMUNICATE IN PHOTOGRAPHS, WHAT I CANNOT IN WORDS AND I CAN COMMUNICATE IN WORDS WHAT CANNOT BE CAPTURED IN A PHOTOGRAPH.

Today, those limiting beliefs, the fear, the playing small - there is no place for that. What I know to be true is that expression comes in all types of forms. Just as there are 7.8 billion souls living right now on this earth, there too are 7.8 billion ways of witnessing, of processing, of reflecting, of being in connection to all that is around us. 

My words, my connection to both, matters and matters deeply. Just as your words, your connection to that which resonate so deeply within your entire being, matters and matters deeply. You see my sweet friend, your expression is inspiration for my expression and my expression is inspiration for the next person's expression and so forth and so forth. 
Here, right now. 
I believe that I can share both, photographs and words. 
Here, right now. 
I believe that you, my community will honor both these truths and take them both for the wholeness that they are. 
I believe that what I see, what I have to say matters deeply, especially in a world that could use constant inspiration, motivation, positivity and a hell of a lot of optimism. 

You see my friend, light cannot exist without dark. 
Day cannot exist without night. 
Black without white. 
Sweet with our salty. 
They need one another to explain the other. 

For me, for my soul, for my purpose, here on this earth, today, right now, photographs and writing, writing and photographs exist together. Fully together! 

I CAN COMMUNICATE IN PHOTOGRAPHS, WHAT I CANNOT IN WORDS AND I CAN COMMUNICATE IN WORDS WHAT CANNOT BE CAPTURED IN A PHOTOGRAPH.

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Ashley Strong Smith // Strong Smith, Inc. 
​760.500.2829
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