Hither & Hold Launch

Welcome welcome WELCOME! I am so ELATED to have you here, on my blog, for the launch of my new website Hither & Hold.

It's been a long journey for me to get to this place, and I am so excited that you're here with me, celebrating today!

Four years ago yesterday (ironically) I launched my first website. Pink and brown flowers with my handwriting incorporated in the design. A small announcement in the middle of the night. Back then, I was scared. Of this idea I could actually DO this. Of putting myself out there. To being true to myself.

It's been a long road since then. Moving cross country and back, a baby, job transition, loss and gains. But that small seed of what sparked all this to begin has grown and bloomed. I can honestly say, Hither & Hold is what I have always had in me but never knew what it was or how to communicate it.

What I have always known is, I wanted to tell stories. I'm that child growing up that always got excessive talking marked on her report card. Who wrote short stories fearlessly, and made copies for her relatives to read at Easter and Thanksgiving. So when I found a camera in my hand, it became a natural extension of my storytelling.

The stories I tell with my camera have meaning beyond the frame. A special gift between to the beholder...to look at a photograph and draw close to that moment and thousands of others that led up to it. When we moved away from Chicago in 2011, my 25 year old self clung to a photograph of us taken the week before we moved. I clung to the story of my life up until that point. I clung to the plot lines, twists and turns that had brought me to that place. And I held it dear. It helped me grieve. It helped me find peace. It helped me find joy again, because I knew if we could be so happy there, we could be so happy here again. That all the things that brought us up to that moment were within us to be brought up again...it was hope...possibility...love.

The word hither means 'to or toward this place'. It came to me in a sacred moment. Pen on the page, Hither was scribbled between the lines. I didn't even know what it really meant, so I looked it up in the dictionary.

'To this place'

Pairing that idea with photographs, I knew immediately 'place' it was referring to because I had been there often. I knew a companion to the word hither was hold. Because that's what we do. We draw close and hold those moments dear. Moments within seasons of faithfulness. Seasons of peace. Seasons of grieving. Seasons of change.

I always had this fear: "I don't want to just be another 'lady with a camera' - but I know now that is what I am. A woman with a camera in my hands, and that camera is how I will do the work I've been given here on earth - to reveal the sacredness of seasons of life, and make markers in the journey for you to hither & hold.

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I invite you to explore. To click into all the pages and read the words that have been brewing in me for so long. And stay tuned this week - TWO amazing giveaways are coming! More details will be here on the blog, and on social media, so please! Follow Hither & Hold on Instagram & Facebook, and sign up to receive my VIP email HERE.

I have started this blog post more times than you can imagine, but I just need to be plain and simple about it. MY NEW BRAND IS FINALLY HERE.

The journey & calling for me and this new brand has been brewing since October 2013 (!) and has gone through revision upon revision. I can't wait to debrief all that has gone into this journey...because BOY as it been a long one! But first, I want to share with you a little bit about what my new brand is all about.

It starts with two very little words.

Hither & Hold.

The word hither means 'to this place' - and that definition has enchanted me. Every artist needs a muse, and HITHER & HOLD is mine.

The HITHER & HOLD movement is about marking time for the future to look back on and be reminded of the love, goodness and grace enclosed within a photograph.

HITHER & HOLD is a new portraiture for married life.

It is a testimony.

It is an altar.

It's a doorway back to this moment, to hither to this place, and hold it dear.

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Come on in, friend. Welcome.

www.aliciasturdy.com

Can't wait to share more coming up in future blog posts...but for right now, welcome to a new experience.

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Thank you SO MUCH to SO many people!! My family (Mom, Dad, Melissa, Kaylee), Carri, Ashley, Michelle & Meghan, my MOIB crew (Carly, Charlene, Davina, Katelyne, Kristen, Nadeena, Robyn, Sandra, Shaina, Treacy),  Jeff Jochum, Elise & Scott of Hey Sweet Pea, Sarah, all my beautiful couples featured on the site that I've shot over the years, and of course, Andrew. Sweetheart, you are the reason why my vision exists...this journey with you is my ultimate muse to hither & hold. I love you.

City Story Photography | Alicia Sturdy www.b87.b5d.myftpupload.com

Inspiration. Mine never comes when I want it to. It comes in the most inconvenient moments where I'm not sitting at my computer, or with a pen in my hand.

It comes though. And to stop and recognize that inspiration is an ingredient of joy has been a big lesson in my life.

So many pieces have played together to become the inspiration for my new niche in my art.

If you read my post from Monday you know that shooting weddings led me to realize I didn't want to shoot wedding days, but deeply loved documenting the relationship and connection between the bride and groom outside the wedding day.

My chapter of life in Chicago and my two years living in quaint Middletown brought me to the place to recognize I am a city soul - I live breath and eat city living with all it's flaws.

The love and support I feel from my husband, and the love that radiates from the marriages in my life have led me to a place where I want to celebrate relationships just as they are. 

My fundamental need to document everything (I must have spent a mint on disposable cameras in high school) led me to photography.

My talkative nature (can you say excessive talking marked on my report card every year of my life) has led me to focus that energy into blogging and telling stories.

And all this poured together creates this twirling, beautiful thing that when I stepped back I saw what I had to do. That in my bones I am a creative, and this is what I am meant to create in this season.

To be an artist. To speak through photographs. To embrace those who love city. To celebrate connection & relationship.

Here in that lies my beliefs.

I believe in the spark first ignited by love.

I believe in fanning the flame of love can make it brighter and stronger.

I believe in preserving this journey to draw back on as these moments get farther from us.

There is always a spark at the beginning of any journey, and it creates something more than just a flash of light, it created a flame of fire. That when coaxed, becomes brighter than in those first few moments of inception. The the fan to this flame is remembering the journey. And that each moment shapes who we are, and to preserve this sacred moment in the journey is worthy of our attention. Is worthy to be captured in a way that creates more than just a pretty photograph on the wall, but to create a marker in the journey. To look back on in any time after now and be reminded of the love that existed in the beginning, the existed in that moment, and that exists even now.

I believe that the power of a city can shape who you are.

I believe in the magnetism of a city, and the energy and peace that it can give.

I believe in the story that that the city creates between two people

I believe this because I know it to be true. I know how a place can create a story line in your life that becomes part of who you are, not just where you live. How alive I feel with miles of sidewalk and buildings are around me soaring up and away. And that my mind clears amongst the honking horns and flurry of people in a way that no silence or stillness can. That this is my place of stillness. This is my place of peace. That this love affair with the city, is one of the greatest storylines in my life.

This. Is City Story.