Your assignment this week, should you choose to accept it, is to create an image based on the word “joy.”

Christmas comes at a difficult time of year for many people. While we celebrate “the holidays” with parties, get-togethers, fancy dinners, and more baked goods than any of us care to admit, there are also reminders of fractured families, separated friends, and the people we’ve lost. For many, the approach of the new year is anything but a joyous time.

But as a photographer, you have the opportunity to remind the people around you of the possibility of joy, in the dark of winter as much as other times.