It has been my prayer that with each new year I would find new inspirations. Januaries are made up of reflection,  self-examination and hopes; Januaries are natural beginnings. With the start of a new year came all the normal emotions and routines, for me. The list of goals and resolutions, each having their place, but none giving me specific purpose for the year. This realization led me to really seek the Lord on my photography vision and all that I want M.A.Rose Photography to represent.

I want to be a photographer of real life and a representation of truth, not perfection. I want to illuminate the good without running and hiding from the bad. I want to be a seeker of beauty and love; the documenter of raw emotions and the stories that make us who we are. I want to find the light even in the darkness.

Photographs are fleeting, in that, we cannot take them with us. However, this doesn’t diminish their eternal impact. By just representing life and emotion a photograph can serve as a sweet reminder of the Lord’s faithfulness. A photograph can show love, peace, or joy: all glimpses of heaven. I want to seek out these glimpses and capture them so that they can reach more people and extend beyond a memory.

This brings me to my personal project for 2014: The Illumination Series. I believe that one way God gives people who are suffering the strength to get through, is by giving them more glimpses at heaven on earth. The Illumination Series will tell the stories of those that experience great struggles in order to illuminate the amazing joy and peace that only God can give and the hope of heaven that fuels us.

I could not be more excited to share with you the chapters of The Illumination Series over the next year! If you know anyone whose story could bring hope to others, email me at mary@marosephotography.com. I will be accepting submissions all year and would be honored to tell your story.

“But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 9-10