The importance of capturing memories

I have not posted in a while. This year has been very exciting for my business but for me personally it was a year of enormous loss. I had a very unique assignment this spring to photograph a family of 10 siblings.

Now I photography families and groups all the time but never one like this. This family was all brothers and one little sister. What made this family different was that they were not celebrating childhood milestones but rather celebrating a life well lived. The oldest sibling was 80 and the youngest was 63.

We arranged to go back to their childhood home. Where the current owners were generous enough to let them go inside and visit the home where they were all born. I took images of them and shared in all their childhood memories. I was very honored to take part in this with them.

Shortly after photographing this unique family my mother died. She had been ill but her death took me and my family by surprise. The last memory I have of my mom is an iPhone photo my brother sent me of her in the hospital. She looks great. It’s her eyes and her smile and I miss them so very much. This photo of my mom surrounded by hospital equipment has become one of my most treasured possessions. It evokes in me such a flurry of emotions. I want to look at her face and remember happy times, different times, but its so hard to get past the other things in the picture.

I look back and wish that I had an portrait of my mother. A memory of her and I together in a place that meant something to us. I think back on that family I photographed in the spring and I wish I had what they had. I want that memory of my mom. As parents we celebrate the milestones in our children’s lives but do we ever think about leaving memories for them of ourselves.