Thursday, October 30, 2014

Printing Dad And Larry's Sacrifice

Started working on my first of 4 or 5 dad pictures for the coming show. The first photo is a tight blurry head shot with plenty of grain. This picture is a bit of a departure for me but a photo type I want to continue to work with in the future. I think the photograph communicates the sadness and desperation a person feels when they are diagnosed with a terminal disease. There is a fear and solemnity to the picture that I think tells a tiny bit of what my father is going through. I thought I had better start working on the dad prints now when dad is still in relatively good shape, later on it might be to hard to print these images, to emotional for me to spend all those hours alone with dad in the dark.

My friend Larry made a rather extraordinary sacrifice for me. Originally we had planned to show the dad photos in a separate back room of the gallery but after that room proved to be unsatisfactory to hang photographs Larry told me that I could have a space in the main gallery, space that was previously for Larry's work. He is giving me a great gift, sacrificing showing his work to allow my father to be seen. It is hard to find good friends many times petty jealousies, unknown grievances and silly grudges destroy friendships. Thank you Larry for allowing my fathers story to be told.