A Very Personal Post...

Two year ago today, as my father was very near the end of his life, I took this photograph of my sister Mary Jane and my father. I am still haunted by this tender moment between a loving daughter and her father. All we were able do at that time was to offer what comfort we could and hope he would sense our presence and our love as he slowly left us.

It was some time later that I discovered the poem “Shifting the Sun” by Diana Der-Hovanessian. It speaks to how different cultures respond to a father’s death. I then added the poem to the above photograph.

When I was 14, my father taught me how to develop film and print pictures. And that has made all the difference in my life. My father died two years ago tomorrow. I photographed him the last two months of his life. I don’t share those photographs with anyone, not even my siblings. They are a personal, private communication between my father and myself. 

My father died two years ago tomorrow.

“When your father dies, say the Armenians

Your sun shifts forever

And you walk in his light.”

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.”