It is no secret that photos are important to me. Perhaps my photography obsession in began the day I realized how few baby photos exist of me. I’ve got 3 from the day I was born, and about 2 or 3 more for the rest of my first year. There are more images of my older siblings . . . I think they must have used all of the Polaroid film up before my I was born. At about 8 years old I acquired my first camera and I’ve been making up for lost time ever since!

My Dad recently traveled to his home state of Texas. While there, he reunited with a brother he hasn’t seen for . . . hmmmm, 20 years (or more?). I have only personally met two of his siblings, and this particular uncle is one I have yet to meet. He also met a distant relative who is a lifelong photo enthusiast and genealogist (he also happens to be 91 years old and still driving!) This relative gave my Dad a disc of family photos of many generations of anscestors. Priceless!! So upon returning home, my Dad received a surprise package in the mail sent by his brother Frank. It was a family album, put together by my Grandmother! (I only met her one time before she passed away, and never really had any relationship with her). I didn’t know she even kept track of us, and yet here was the proof.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to look through this photo book with my Dad . . . there were so many images that were new to me (most of them before my time). I was floored to discover this little gem:

{Could this really be a baby photo of me? Yes! That is me at 6 weeks old with my cute 5 year-old sister Kim}

Along with many treasured photos, there were even a few homemade cards I had sent my grandma when I was a child. Wow. This photo makes me think: 1) My own babies were chubby like this at 6 weeks. 2) I always thought I was a bald baby and this photo would suggest otherwise. My babies were born with tons of hair . . . I never knew that was from my side of the family! 3) The serious-furrowed eyebrow look my kids give me can be traced back to me. 4) My Grandmother cared more about me than I thought she did. What a treasured photo!

Family is the essence of why I am a photographer. I feel such the sense of urgency to document and record life through my lens. Which images captured now will be treasured decades down the road? What stories will be remembered from the images I create? Hopefully plenty of them! Too many to count . . .

This entry was posted on Monday, May 26th, 2008 at 11:13 pm and is filed under family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.