Historian of the Heart

     Often, someone will ask me how I got into photography, and I find that question somewhat difficult to answer.   I do know, however, why I stay in photography.  Strangely enough, the reasons I keep doing photography have very little to do with loving photography itself. (Even though, I do love the art and science of photography.)  The reason I continue to work as a photographer is that photographs allow us to connect in ways that we would miss if we didn't have our photos. 
     Here is a story that illustrates what I mean.  When I was younger, this portrait (above) was hanging in my grandmother's house.  It was one of those old Victorian portraits - oval, convex, and framed in an ornate oval frame under bubble glass.  I loved looking at this photo, but for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why we had this huge picture of the cough-drop-box guys  hanging on the wall.  (For those of you who don't remember Smith Bros. cough drops, the Smiths looked a lot like this photo.)  Finally, I asked my grandmother about the portrait, and she explained that this photo was of her twin uncles who fought on opposite sides in the Civil War.  After the war, they were so angry with each other that they didn't speak to each other for 20 years.  Eventually, one of them decided that being brothers was more important than anything, so he wrote to his twin wanting to reconcile.  The other brother agreed to meet in a centrally located town.  When they met, they were dressed the same, their hair was cut in a similar fashion, and they both wore beards. (Still looking like twins even though they had not seen each other in twenty years!)  To commemorate the occasion, they went to a local photographer who created this portrait - a portrait that allowed me to learn a part of my family history that I might have missed.
     You see, this portrait connects me with my heritage and will continue to connect future generations to the legacy that is our family history. Old photographs do that for us, but portraits also connect us to the present.  When we display portraits of our families or our children, we are saying that  we are proud of them and that we love them. These photographs show who we are and what is important to us.
      Of course, those family portraits we treasure now will someday connect us to the future, passing on our legacy to those who come after us.
     That is why I am a photographer -a historian of the heart who desires to create personal works of art that will be cherished for generations to come.
     What will your legacy be?

~ Vondel ~