From Emmaus to EXAMEN

I had always felt like the journey to Create our first book - Emmaus: The Nature of the Way - did not start with the first photograph or even with the concept.  But this seed was planted and began to grow inside me long before then.  Likewise, the publication and “completion” of Emmaus did not mark the end of the journey.  They say you learn more from your failures than your successes and Emmaus was no different.  Being able to identify everything we wanted to change from the borders in the book, to the publisher, to the overall theme was one of our most important tasks.  

And to be completely honest, the moment Robert and I handed Fr. Deck, SJ the printed out photograph of Fr. Fulco, pitching Emmaus, I knew we were onto something special.  The Jesuits pride themselves on having a global presence and our expectations for this project was no different.  We knew there was another stop, we just weren’t quite sure where.  So lets take a look back at how we started.

Emmaus not only garnered overwhelmingly positive reactions from the LMU community but the greater Jesuit, Catholic, and photographic community.  This was not only a proof of concept for Robert and I, but this gave us the ability to focus more on the story, more on the person in front of the lens, and more on the questions rather than on the logistics.  

Once I graduated LMU, I did a year of service at Amate House in Chicago.  For those unfamiliar with post graduate service, the easiest way to explain it is peace corp or americorp.  Except my program was specific to Chicago and I worked at a John Paul II Newman Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago.  During my entire year of service I would fly back to Los Angeles every single month not only to visit my girlfriend who lived in LA but to prepare for the launch and release of Emmaus.  Shifting gears and looking toward the next stop - I started to realize it was closer to home than I had thought. Little did I know that after my year of service, I would move back to Los Angeles, and embark on a journey that would take me to Chicago every single month for an entire year. 

I now know why they call them red eye flights, but on the bright side I was able to say I was a “Gold Member” at American Airlines.  A resume builder for sure. 

Although we had “been around the block” once, this book’s issues, logistics, and successes were as unique as the individuals in it.  Stay tuned - Every other week I’ll lay out and describe some of the unique behind the scenes juicy details, stories, frustrations, and joys that culminated into the beautiful book that you see today.