Another Thought…
Apr 25th, 2009 by Wendy
While doing much needed dusting of a wall of family photos in my hallway the other day I fell to pondering the expressions on the faces I was swiping. The photos are a mixture of professionally done and snapshot, black and white and color. Having chosen the lot, there are some I like very much.
The image of Lenore, my mother-in-law, on the day that Megan was born is quite possibly the best one taken of her in her mid-adult life. The one of my Grandpa Carl, sitting in a lawn chair watering his garden with a cigarette in his hand and an old hat perched above his smiling face causes me to smile every time I see it. Megan’s high school graduation shot, cap and gown and all full of life and promise, is a beauty. Jared as a baby, looking so much like his daddy as a baby in the picture hung diagonally above. Justin wearing “the hat”, the hat that he wore until the brim literally separated and fell off. A group photo of my three kids as youngsters, looking precious and vulnerable and impossibly lovely.
And there are a few that ring false to me, but I keep them for the link they provide. There’s one of my parents…both smiling for the photographer who had my mother stand behind my sitting father, arm draped across his shoulder. False, utterly false. And there is the father/daughter photo—huge smiles, big hug—that is a keeper, for sure, but not quite right for the stormy relationship that was developing. But this is the nature of the paper image. It does not discriminate. It takes what you give and immortalizes it, true or false, right or wrong. Which is part of what I love about photography…it keeps you guessing and looking for the truth.
