When We Build

United Steelworkers Building | Pittsburgh, PA

We’re all building something.

Some of us are building physical structures - brick and mortar. Others of us are creating space for people to have dialogue and conversations. Others still are building environments where people can learn to be healthy, educated, and take better care of our communities and one another. We build families, social circles, and cultures. The list is extensive and dynamic in how we are all architects to a degree. 

We build. We create.

And hopefully, we don’t just build for today.

Senior | Adam

Portrait | Morgan

A few years ago, I took a leap of faith and started my own photo and video company. I had been building up to it for years doing freelance work. I’ve always loved storytelling. It began by hearing my grandpa or dad tell stories with our family. It grew as I watched reruns of Saturday Night Live and old stand up specials on Comedy Central. 

I quickly realized that story wasn’t just for amusement and laughter - it could evoke a wide range of emotions. I can hear a lyric or piece of music or see a scene and be so moved.

Clip from a church and elementary school partnership.

So I started creating my own stories - my own art. It started out with my family. Then sharing stories in class or between friends. In high school, I was drawn to visual storytelling, and I've been working on my craft ever since.

The art of visual storytelling has been building in me for years. I’m excited to continue building, to continue growing in my craft, and to continue helping brands and individuals tell their story.

Celebrating Chatham House’s new Petoskey location

A few years ago my wife and I went on a tour of the Meadow Brook Hall in Rochester, MI. It’s the estate of the Dodge Family (like the Dodge’s of the car company).

It’s now a museum, but as visitors, we get to see some of the grandeur with which the family lived. Kids had their own wings to the home. Secret pathways, countless rooms. In a manner of speaking…the manor is pretty big.

But it was a quote in a small frame in a nondescript hallway that caught my attention:

When we build, let us think we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone. Let is be such a work that our descendants will thank us for, and let us think, as we lay stone upon stone, that a time is to come when these stones will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say, as they look upon the labor and wrought substance of them, "See! This our fathers did for us."

John Ruskin

Let’s build well - together.

- JK