I find myself staring at the screen of my computer not being able to think of a single thing to say...no...nothing... I can hear my mother's voice in the background,
"Not a single thing to say? How utterly amazing."
Being new to the blogging arena, it seems daunting to think I can just write whatever I want and post it for the whole world to see. The effect is somewhat unsettling and I feel perhaps a little brazen with myself. What do I have to say? What do I know of blogs? Almost nothing, except I did find a very handy trick to unclog a toilet on one. At any rate, I am beginning this blog as a means to share some of my photography with my friends and family. I hope it will also to keep me shooting and pursuing my personal work.
Of all the pictures I've taken over the last few years, I'm choosing to post one that I took while I was in Santa Fe this summer while attending a workshop. A classmate and I had seen a tattoo parlor downtown that had fabulous funky lighting and we headed there one night after a presentation to ask if we could take some photos. The owner was very generous and accommodating and we spent a number of hours there chatting and experimenting with our camera equipment. As we packed up and were leaving a young man (I think of him as young, he was in his twenties perhaps) approached me with his hand open and arm extended and asked, "Don't you want to take a picture of my Jesus?". He speech was not entirely clear, but his intent was obviously sincere. "Absolutely" was my reply. I took two shots as he was, with his arm outstretched to show me his tattoo.
It wasn't until much later that I noticed the similarities between the tattoo and the face of the man himself. The man whose life I seek to emulate was embodied on the arm and in the face of a stranger that I met at a tattoo parlor at one o'clock in the morning on the wrong side of town. The irony of the situation still makes me smile. If somebody told me, "Hey go down to the tattoo joint and you'll get a glimpse of Jesus". I wouldn't have believed him, but I tell you, looking at this picture, I felt for a moment I actually did.
