Freemasonry is Big in Japan

One of my former interns, Jordan Felix, contacted me recently. He’d just moved to Miami to pursue a job with a private museum.  He was also doing some writing on the side for Juxtapoz, and asked if he could share some of my Freemasonry images on their blog.  I said sure, answered a few questions, and sent him an edit to use.

The story appeared on the Juxtapoz site a few weeks later.

A week or so after that, I was contacted by UK design blog It’s Nice That, who wanted to do a feature as well.  I answered a few more questions, and sent off another edit. 

Then the project was featured on Fast Company’s design site, Co.Design.

Then, on to The Week.

To its most recent appearance on The Huffington Post.

Fortunately, this particular project has a timeless quality to it. So while some of these images were made almost 10 years ago, they are still relevant, as Masonic culture is in a sort of a glacially slow downward slide. Not much has changed.

There are two things that I love about how this has played out:

1. The speed and ease with which images and thoughts can spread online. No other medium can travel as far and wide, and do so without consuming resources like paper, postage, and fuel.

2. You never know when little things will lead to much bigger things. In this case, one email that contained a few pictures and some words went on to travel the world and reach a wide, international audience. Similarly, I'm reminded of the first picture I shot for this project, and how I almost dismissed the moment and moved on.  It's an image of the light in an old stairwell, and it's the image that kept me coming back for many years, searching for that elusive, beautiful light.

It’s a good reminder to take an extra minute to pay attention to the little stuff, and treat it with importance.