When I was thinking about the name for my company I wanted it to encapsulate how I feel about the world and the work I want to do. I toyed around with different ideas, but eventually settled on "House of Light." I got there through a circuitous route that started with the idea that the word "camera" comes from the phrase "camera obscura" which literally means "dark chamber."
A camera obscura was a light sealed room with one tiny hole in one of the walls. This hole would let in light and it's tiny aperture would project an upside down image on the opposite wall of whatever was outside the room.
"Dark Chamber Photography," while kind of badass sounding, has a connotation that is... well...dark. So I thought about what that dark chamber allows for.
Photography (literally "light-writing") is the creation of imagery using the momentary exposure of a scene onto a light sensitive material. The camera and lens is the means to focus this exposure, to create a context where those moments can be isolated and highlighted. The dark chamber is merely the canvas, and the paint is the light.
And that's where I found the connection to what I think is important in life and in the work I want to do: that even though the world can be rather dark at times, there are ways that we can take that darkness and paint amazing and beautiful pictures on it. We do this when we find love and make the commitment to start a family, when we raise our children, when we start a business, when we celebrate our friendships.
With engagements, and weddings, and children, and parties and all the other things I hope to capture, we take that "dark chamber" and paint all it's walls to make a House of Light.
