Some Times It Is Personal

This isn’t a photograph you will find in any of my galleries, it is a personal photograph of my mother along with her sister and brother in front of their childhood home.

This image is a good example of why I shoot the things I do, I am part documentarian and part historian. I have many images like this one that can never be duplicated.

I had wanted to photograph these three together in front of their old home for many years. The house is part of a large ranch just outside Aledo, Texas. It is part of a  large company that owns several ranches like this one. The ranch manager and his wife live in the house and getting permission to shoot there was not easy.

My uncle who lived outside the US had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and was back visiting my mother and aunt to say good bye. Between my aunt and I we found the right people and got permission to shoot.

When we got there ranch manager’s wife was full of questions about the house. My mother and her siblings walked around the porch and explained many things to her. Unfortunately they did not get a chance to go inside.

I lined them up in front of the house, concerned a bit because the light wasn’t the greatest and shot a few frames. We all told the ranch manager’s wife thank you and good bye. She extended an invitation to come back in a few months and tour the inside.

Cancer took my uncle a few months later. A year or so after that the house burned to the ground.

Even though they are gone my family has these images to remember them by.

Shoot the photograph, make the prints and share them with the people that matter.