Photograph

Photographs. Images created by light on a light-sensitive surface, like photographic film or, more likely today, an electronic imager. The word "photograph" is based on the Greek words for "light" and "drawing", together meaning "drawing with light". There is nothing quite like a photograph. It captures a moment in time, there to enjoy and relive at your leisure. Distances are shortened, memories are rekindled, common threads and found. Family photos span decades and generations, providing history lessons with personal meaning. We see our own images in the faces of relatives. When photos are passed from generation to generation, so are the stories behind the pictures, creating a link from present to past.
This week brought a gift to my family in the form of a picture of my paternal grandmother, her siblings and her parents. They arrived in Santa Barbara in December 1929, so the photograph was taken some time after that. My grandmother is the third from the left. Viewing this photograph is like traveling in time, looking at clothing, furniture and especially their faces and expressions, peering in from the view of the photographer.

Family faces are very much like magic mirrors: we see the past, present and future through people who belong to us. The images that represent the past speak to us in the present. They are the past recorded and, for as long as we wish, the past relived.