World Kindness Day celebrates the World Kindness movement, founded in 1997, by several global organizations to promote kindness and compassion as essential to a peaceful world. There seems no better time to use this anniversary for opening up to giving our time, talents, and hearts to add some beauty and peace into others’ lives.
I’ve always loved Random Acts of Kindness; they are simple opportunities in your everyday life to make someone’s day brighter, a bit less difficult, and to make someone feel seen. But, in order to lift someone else up, it requires us to stop looking down and away. There are countless times I’ve seen someone who could use the door being opened for them, or help getting their luggage down from an overhead bin, and at the same time I’ve watched the many capable people around them not look up from their phone, or not make eye contact and just go about their day. I remember when I was on crutches and my foot was in a boot, I was right behind someone headed into the hospital, and he opened the door and paid no attention as it slammed on me and knocked me backwards. I was mostly taken aback by the fact that someone heading into a hospital didn’t take the extra second to see if someone was behind them. That’s really all sharing kindness takes, an extra second or two, but the impact can be life changing for others.
How can we apply this principle as photographers? I see kindness as an integral part of my job description. I am typically photographing women, and sometimes men, who are doing a photo shoot with me to heal a wound, new or old, to celebrate a change, easy or hard, and they are looking to not only look beautiful, but to feel special. That’s where we come in. It’s my job, and my privilege, to serve my clients with an abundance of appreciation for them, and with the goal of making their dream photo shoot come true. Every word counts. Every interaction, on set and off, counts. Every action and gesture matters. Instead of treating your next photo shoot as your routine course of business, I encourage you to seek out a way to bring an extra healthy dose of kindness and compassion to that session. Find an extra word of encouragement you can give to the newborn’s mom or dad. Tell the multigenerational family that you are photographing what an honor it is to be their family’s storyteller. Tell the woman in front of your lens who so bravely is trying to embrace herself in this moment in time how strong she is, how deserving she is of celebrating herself. Once you start, it’s hard to stop, and hopefully that’s the point. I loved pampering this mama to be and telling her how radiant she was! There’s almost nothing more fulfilling to me than women supporting women, so this day is a great opportunity to do just that.
You can perform Random Acts of Kindness everyday, and you can certainly show that same kindness and compassion to every client, past, present, and future. How will you impact someone’s life today?
