"I'm a bitch, I'm a lover
I'm a child, I'm a mother
I'm a sinner, I'm a saint
I do not feel ashamed
I'm your hell, I'm your dream
I'm nothing in between
You know you wouldn't want it any other way"

Meredith Brooks, Bitch*

Albuquerque family photographer - ccliberman photographyWho We Are - A CCL Photo November Project It's election season and we've been hearing "that's who we are" or "that's just not who we are" quite a bit. The people on TV are talking about who we are as Americans. And that's a valid question, but it's made me think a lot about the very essence of WHO WE ARE in the context of family.

I was looking around my house today and I saw a Boston Red Sox hat hanging over a Red Sox scarf in the hallway. It was one of the kid's hats. It had been rolling around in the hall for days before I picked it up and kind of haphazardly stacked it on top of the coats and stuff that gather on hooks. I took another look around and saw another hat on the back of a door handle and a Red Sox t-shirt on a clothes pile on the bathroom floor. WE ARE Red Sox fans. That's evident in how we schedule our summer life around baseball games and, also, in the middle names we have given our children (Jason after catcher Jason Varitek; Boston for our son born in 2013, the year they won the World Series). You can see our dedication to our team in our laundry and the small memorabilia shrine we keep on our dresser (don't judge! It's only weird if it doesn't work), in the license plate frame on our newly acquired Momrod and if you listen closely, in the constant conversation about how to manage a baseball team that runs through our lives, because my husband and I are SURE if they would we just CALL US we could fix all the teams' woes. We are also apparently messy. There are six of us, we live in a smallish house. Sometimes the mess overtakes the space.

I took a few more looks around the house. All of my sewing stuff is sitting on a kitchen counter with a pile of multi-colored felt. It's costume season and that's kind of my World Series. I make the kids' costumes while complaining and shotgunning Starbucks for a few very hectic weeks. Who am I? I am Crafty Mom. There are kid paints and my paints next to jars of paint brushes sitting in the corner of the counter ready to be used at a moment's notice. Who are we? We are artists. There paint swatches stuck to walls and cabinets in an endless quest to make my house feel like home, or to sell it and buy something better suited to six people...whichever comes first. Who are we? We are in transition. Our beds are unmade as if we rolled out and hit the ground running, which we did, or maybe as if they are waiting with open arms for us to return knowing we are too exhausted to pull back the comforters and sheets before falling asleep, which we will be.  Who are we? We are busy and we are tired.

Last year at this time, I did project called Kids Live Here about how the essence of children can be seen in a home even when the children themselves are not present. I captured shoes and cups and toys all abandoned in pursuit of another adventure. I showed their rooms and their creations and their little - mostly big - messes. My house is alive because my kids live in it.

This year, I'd like to explore the question of WHO WE ARE as individuals, as a family, as people in our city and in our world. And, I'd like you to join me by making your own photographic exploration of who YOU are. Let's start our project on Nov. 1, 2016. I know, November is Thanksgiving and the run up to the holidays...but maybe that's the best time, we are the most US when we are in the thick of it. I'll do a weekly blog post and you can contribute in the comments on my Facebook page and by using the hashtag #CCLphotoWhoWeAre on Facebook and Instagram. I'm eager to find out a little bit about myself and my own family, and I look forward to seeing who you are.

* You know you're singing along!