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Haley Chapman

@hales_chap

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documented & curated but not the full picture
follower of Christ — SFASU & ∆∆∆ alum
@haleychapmanphoto

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I’ve thought a lot over the past week about how Chapmans don’t really have many “normal” friends – you’re either a stranger, or you might as well be family.

I see it bright as day in the way my grandmother adopted 15+ of my uncle’s high school friends turned lifelong friends (yes, the infamous Gator Boyz) – and then still continued to get regular phone calls from them 40 years later. It’s evident in the hat boxes full of photos she kept that had almost as many school photos saved of her best friend Tila’s kids as it did her own.

Being an airman’s wife & moving constantly, I think my grandmother picked up a knack for making any room she was in feel like home, and any person she met feel like family. It probably was partly due to the fact that she could whip out a scratch-baked pie with her eyes closed, and that usually goes over pretty well with people. But more than that, I think she just moved around a room with the intention to take care of whoever was right in front of her – and it stuck with people.

That very same care & bent towards collecting up bonus family has really trickled down the line. I see it in the way my mom has treated generations of employees like her kids. It’s the reason why my uncle has enough stock pots to feed an army (and then some), because it’s just our culture to gather people together, and then offer a bowl & a spoon to whoever walks through the door.

I look around at my own friends turned family, the same kind of friends who drive you across the state to memorial services one year and who pack over their bassinet to spend all day at your house the next, and am so aware of all the ways my grandparent’s influence on my life shows up in their now absence.

Genuinely has got to be the richest legacy built for us that is evident within our family, in the stories we tell, and luckily for me – in all the photos she kept. 🤎 taken in Nacogdoches, Texas by @hales_chap

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9 months ago

lil bit of nac, lil bit of nyc! by @hales_chap

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a year ago

silly lil dinner party with my favorite people on the planet! i just love being a girllll 🎂 taken in Nacogdoches, Texas by @hales_chap

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a year ago

we ♥️ bear country !!! (and amish fried pies)

/// colorado & new mexico, July ‘25 taken in Horca, Colorado by @hales_chap

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a year ago

2025 YTD ! taken in Nacogdoches, Texas by @hales_chap

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a year ago

moments from Arua I’m storing up!!!

would genuinely love to sit down with you & share more from our time in Uganda if we haven’t already. there’s always an unabridged version (duh) and I’m always game to tell another story or two :’) taken in Arua Uganda by @hales_chap

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a year ago

20 of the 8,042 photos added to my camera roll in 2024 with no context :) taken in Nacogdoches, Texas by @hales_chap

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2 years ago

friends on film 🎞️ // summer & fall ‘24 by @hales_chap

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2 years ago

no but actually? (also TYJ for roommates who love Christmas + prettyyy thingsss) by @hales_chap

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2 years ago

Chapman Thanksgiving, documented exactly how it felt.

I wish I could articulate just how special these images are to me personally, but also in a way, as an artist.

I hold a general appreciation for the body of my work, but like most - there is still a healthy tension spanning the work we are able to envision and the honest output of our hands. I think these images, for me, mark a time those two seemingly distant points overlapped.

Exact and honest, integral and lived-in.

It’s the account of my family told through my eyes - both wholly mine and in every way, ours.

Bonham, Texas - 11/27/2023. Shot on the Canon R. by @hales_chap

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2 years ago

disneyworld on film 🎞️ 11/10/2023

such a sweet trip to visit one of my favorite families on the planet. we love an oklahoma/sfa/cru/lakehart/crossover! taken in Disney World by @hales_chap

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2 years ago

“it’s September, of course I’m sentimental!”

fall 2023 on digital - featuring zoo weddings, million dollar pho, and bday shenanigans taken in Nacogdoches, Texas by @hales_chap

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2 years ago