the photographer's mother

My mother, Margo

My legegndary friend, GrandPaw the husky dog

The Legendary GrandPaw

old photo of the photographer

Me — as seen by Michael Gomez

I find it hard, sometimes, to believe that photographs really matter. They are so everpresent, so diposable. The meaning of a single picture can be easily dismissed as being just next to irrelevant. Yet, I know better than to buy into my own, often cynical, views.

I have two pictures which eradicate this self defeating relativism (for a photographer, especially) in a single glance. The first is of GrandPaw, the dog who followed me around for several years. The other is a very small picture of my mother. They both sit on top of my desk. When I see them I am, in an instant, happy in the reminder of what is good about my life. Dogs, I guess, are like children insomuch as other people don't necessarily have the same emotional attachment to them as you do. Listening to someone yammer on about how cute their pet is can be a dull torture. I won't do it to you. Suffice it to say, this old Siberian Husky found me when I really needed a friend, and I would like to believe that, if it were necessary, he would have taken a bullet for me.

Mothers are more universal in their appeal. Everybody has, or had, a mom. Most are really great. Some are less so. Margo, is one of the former. I hear her laugh when I see this picture which I took while we were vising my grandmother. That's it, pretty much. I look over at the 2 inch tall image of my mom. I remember her laughing and I know that some things are right in my world. I will still have trials and difficulties, but that picture makes bad time bearable and good times more enjoyable.

Though there have been countless billions of photographs taken, I have come, unintentionally, to depend upon these precious few to represent the best part of my existence. Pictures do matter. It is my wish, therefore, to impart this kind of meaning and signifigance to the images that I capture for my clients. Some of those pictures will, for a moment, put somebody right back in a place and time where life was just right.

-R.