Gathered Light — A Year in Review (2025)

  I began 2025 with a clear but ambitious dream: to create a gallery and photographic center in the greater Seattle area, rooted in conservation through art, storytelling, and access for all. A place where photography could serve as a bridge — between inner and outer work, between personal grounding and planetary responsibility.

What became clear very quickly was that while the vision was sound, the financial reality was not. The startup costs and funding required for a physical space were simply beyond my reach. Rather than abandon the larger intention, I spent the first months of the year stepping back, evaluating, and asking a harder question: how else could Gathered Light connect people, support education, and amplify meaningful stories — right now, with the resources available?

The answer became Gathered Light Magazine.

Because Gathered Light is a one-person operation alongside a full-time job, I made the decision to publish on a bi-monthly schedule, allowing room for care, depth, and sustainability rather than speed. Over the course of 2025, Gathered Light Magazine released four full issues, along with an introductory launch — including an Ocean-focused issue, an Inner Landscape issue, and a Wildlife issue. While Issue 5 (Trees) launches just after the new year, the majority of its work took place in 2025 and reflects the editorial foundations established throughout the year.

Each issue has intentionally explored a different terrain — not only ecological, but human. The ocean, which plays an essential role in sustaining life on this planet and has been deeply formative in my own life, appears in every issue, regardless of the overarching theme. Ocean literacy, ethics, and rights are not a sidebar concern for Gathered Light; they are a constant throughline.

Equally central is the belief that conservation cannot exist in isolation from human dignity. Education, safety, food, shelter, a free voice, and access to opportunity are not optional extras — they are foundational rights. Asking people to care for the planet without acknowledging privilege, access, and stability ignores the reality that meaningful engagement requires a solid place to stand. This understanding has shaped the magazine’s editorial direction from the beginning.

Beyond the magazine, 2025 was also a year of experimentation and learning. I launched several websites and explored building a standalone online community. Ultimately, cost and sustainability required scaling back, and the community effort was re-envisioned as Gathered Light Journal on Substack, offering a more accessible and manageable platform for ongoing writing, reflection, and connection.

In parallel, I released three books in 2025:

• Beneath the Surface — a workbook of photography exercises grounded in personal experience
• Timberline Mist — a concise photographic essay
• Frames of Humanity — releasing in the third week of December, exploring human presence, dignity, and relationship through image and story

In the second half of the year, Gathered Light also began developing an adaptive photography section, recognizing that access to creative tools and expression must include bodies and abilities of all kinds — an important and ongoing area of work.

Despite its modest scale, Gathered Light Magazine reached approximately 3,000–4,000 unique readers per issue globally in its first year, primarily across the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. For an independent, self-funded publication, this reach is something I’m deeply grateful for.

More than numbers, however, the most meaningful part of 2025 has been the people. Photographers, writers, scientists, advocates, and readers who trusted Gathered Light with their voices and their work. The magazine exists because of them. Being able to share those voices — often quiet, thoughtful, and deeply committed — has been the greatest reward of the year.

Looking toward 2026, the goals are both practical and hopeful:

• to continue growing readership and reach
• to deepen involvement with Ocean Rights and aligned conservation campaigns
• to expand investigative environmental journalism
• to develop educational materials for broader age ranges — including early exploration of a children’s  edition of Gathered Light Magazine
• and to find sustainable ways to monetize the work so that Gathered Light can receive the time, energy, and  care it deserves

And yes — the gallery and photographic center remain a dream. Not abandoned, simply deferred. Some ideas take longer to arrive in the world than in the heart.

If 2025 was about foundation-building, listening, and learning, then 2026 is about strengthening, refining, and continuing forward — with gratitude, honesty, and resolve.

With Deep Gratitude — 2025 Contributors

Issue 1

Fabiano Ventura
The Story of Stuff Project

Issue 2

Yahl ‘Aadas – Cori
Captain Paul Watson Foundation
Living Seawalls

Issue 3

Brooke Shaden
Sarah Beebe
Chris Nowell
Andrew Murphy
David Dornberg
Julia Averett Buteux
Olivia Mandle
Eli Rees-King
David Whyte

Issue 4

Annalise Kaylor
Natalie Ingle
K.C. Bailey
Lori A. Cash
Connor Mazzola
Sam Reavey

 

Thank you for trusting Gathered Light with your work.

A special thank you to Red River Paper for their continued support of Gathered Light Magazine throughout 2025 through advocacy and shared visibility. Their encouragement has been deeply appreciated.