Friday, September 10, 2010

Leaving

While I try not to use this blog to showcase my family, I couldn't resist posting this image. Here's my younger daughter, Jaclyn, (my baby) at the airport a few days ago, about to leave for her semester abroad in Barcelona. Excited yet clearly apprehensive, she clutched her wallet and her rollie in the middle of the terminal just after checking her other two bags.
When I raised my camera, she covered her face and screamed, "Noooo, Mom, it's so embarrassing!"
"Come on, let me take just a few."
"Ok," she sighed and looked away."
At first I thought this image so aptly epitomized the moment. But maybe, it just mirrors the mixed emotions of the photographer who happens to be her mother. Even though separating has gotten easier, I must keep reminding myself that she's twenty years old not twenty months. Which raises an interesting question about portraiture.
Where do we leave off and they begin? Are we portraying how they feel at a given moment or how we feel about them?
For me, it's a dance of give and take, just like any relationship.

4 comments:

  1. I surely can relate and this photo captured it really well!

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  2. Hi Meryl,
    I am on the verge of that separation thing... well not exactly .. Rudy just started his senior year in High School. the last one and then he's off..
    Your daughter is going to have a wonderful time.. do you have any plans to visit her?
    Nancy

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  3. Your text is beautiful, Meryl,and very sensitive; the photo is so natural, so "living" (sorry for the english)

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