grandmother with a camera and a quote

“Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you.” 

Theodor Seuss Geisel

grandmother with a camera and a quote

"If you have good thoughts, they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely."

Raold Dahl

day three

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

- Antoine de Saint-Expuery

day two

"The greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places."

- Roald Dahl

grandmother with a camera: day one

The first day of twelve with the grandchildren was today. I'm hoping to post a photo a day, along with a quote from a children's book.

The first one was taken during nap time. Luckily this grandchild sleeps like a rock... didn't even budge during the loud Hasselblad shutter. Thunk.

"Sometimes," said Pooh; "the smallest things take up the most room in your heart." 
- A.A. Milne

st. mary kevin photos from dawn and emily!

Change the Truth board member, Dawn, and her daughter, Emily are at St. Mary Kevin Children's Home for the 4th and 3rd time, respectively. They look like they've settled in quite nicely!

timothy archibald

San Francisco-based photographer Timothy Archibald began photographing his autistic 5-year-old son Elijah as a way of dealing with the young boy's diagnosis. Noticing how his son behaved, different from other kids, and knowing that as a parent he was desperately eager to raise his child as best as he could, he felt the need to pour his frustrations into this portrait project titled Echolilia. What he didn't realize was how much closer it would bring him to his son and allow him to understand Eli better.

Image after image, Archibald's collection reveals the socially withdrawn child's unique perspective. The way he interacts with objects offers an alternative approach to communicating with the world around him. The photographer says, "I never wanted [Eli] to think that he was normal. I wanted him to be aware of how different he was and see that as an asset."

Through this series, Archibald not only got to appreciate his son's quirks but he was also able to release his desire to control situations (as a professional photographer) and learn to follow his son's lead. Together, the father-son duo bonded over photography and collaborated on a series they can now look back on and recall fond memories.

Echolilia has been turned into a book and signed copies are available to purchase directly through Archibald's website.

- from My Modern Met

bruce davidson

“I have done what I wanted to do, I have seen everything: misery, celebrity, the beautiful people, the wicked ones, generosity and hatred. But I think I have gone beyond my vision.... in the heart of my own life, in the heart of other people's lives. Perhaps that is the most important thing I have done.” 

– Bruce Davidson

Bruce Davidson, born in 1933, received his first camera as a gift from his mother at age seven. He used it to take photographs in his suburban neighborhood, Oak Park, Illinois. “Most boys my age had a dog. I had a camera.”

By age 10, he’d convinced his mom, an independent single mother, to build him a darkroom. He worked as a photographer throughout high school, at RIT and Yale, in the Army, and afterward, as a freelancer. Some 75 years after his first photos, Davidson is considered one of the most influential photographers of the last half-century.

Davidson cites Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank, and Diane Arbus as influences. When he left military service in 1957, he did freelance work for Life Magazine, and in 1958 he became a full member of Magnum (having been invited by Henri Cartier-Bresson himself). From 1958 to 1961 he created such groundbreaking and influential works as “The Dwarf,” “Brooklyn Gang” and “Freedom Rides.” He received a Guggenheim in 1962 and created a body of work about the civil rights movement. Davidson was given a solo show at the Museum of Modern Art in 1963.

In 1970 he published East 100th Street, now considered a classic. He worked on the project for two years, documenting with a 4x5 large-format view camera, life on one block in East Harlem. In 1980, he published Subway, a book of color pictures made on the New York City subway during a time when the subway was a dangerous place to be. Davidson directed two award-winning short films: a documentary called Living Off the Land and a more surreal piece titled Isaac Singer’s Nightmare and Mrs. Pupko’s Beard. In 2010, his book Outside Inside, a three-volume boxed set, was published by Gerhard Steidl.

Davidson continues to work today as an editorial photographer. What makes a good photograph?  He has a simple answer: “What makes a good picture is almost subliminal. It could be a look on a face or a detail on a piece of clothing. You just have to go with the flow sometimes.”

His influence on countless photographers who have worked on the street is immeasurable. He’s a photographer’s photographer; his work and his persona are beloved by legions of people, myself included.