About Bryan Farley
February 2017
I never spend much time on my “About Page.” I edited this page in June 2015. I created the page a few years earlier. I will continue to adapt and learn, but my biography can be found in my photo galleries and stories about other people.
I have included much of the original about page below.
I almost always read a person’s bio page yet I spend so little time writing my own. There is probably an art to writing an about page, but I haven’t learned it. I teach it. I actually teach photo students how to create their online profiles. I include sections on sharing and editing. I just don’t follow my advice. Perhaps I should start listening to myself.
So I have an interesting story… and I am an interesting story. As long as I can remember, I have wanted to be a father. My parents divorced when I was young, and I could feel my father’s loss when he moved out of the house and out of my life. The loss magnified when he shot himself months after my first child was born.
Sometimes the unexpected can become a gift, but for those stories, you may need to search through my many blog posts. If not for my father, I would not be the person I am today. If not for the difficulties, I would not be able to connect with people the way that I do. By the time I went to UC Santa Barbara, I already had epilepsy. I graduated with a B.A. in Women’s Studies. For several years, I was a peer-health educator for a rape prevention education program. Life experiences directed me on that path.
my photo taken at a Mexico City playground
I never planned on being a photographer or a writer. I fell into this type of work. As a person with epilepsy, I have fallen often. My career has changed more than I wish to admit, but I have gained more experience and more empathy from the sudden disruptions. I have gained a quiet perseverance.
When I was younger, we did not have the internet or computers, at least not the same way we have them now. I am not a digital native.
I am a digital amphibian.
I keep adapting; I keep learning.
When I first started creating my new WordPress GraphPaperPress photographer blog in October 2011, I heard a news report about a father who was stuck in a children’s swing. The fire department rescued the man. What a great story.
The reporters mocked the man, but I saw a father trying to impress his children. Sometimes, we must be willing to get stuck. We may believe that we are all quick learners, but this is a myth.
I am not a quick learner.
At best, I am a persistent man just trying to impress his family.
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