Growing up a photographer’s child has got to suck. You are always on display. Always have to be camera ready.
I wonder what the long term psychological ramifications are for children of MWACs (mom with a camera)…do you think it’s helped bring narcissism to a whole new level or do you think perhaps it has allowed children to self explore, become more self aware of themselves?
I’m not entirely sure.
These (as the other images here on this blog) are old images. Taken from a vacation in the Smokies circa 2009.
The image to the left is of M Girl walking off trail. I like her movement in this photo, very illustrative of who she was at age 9. Always moving, always being funny. She was living her own personal pain at the time. Bullying had started and in retrospect maybe I should’ve pulled her out of school and home schooled (I don’t actually think that would’ve been a viable solution because frankly she is a social creature through and through and has always sought social excitement beyond the walls of our home). I can’t blame her though, childhood wasn’t always a happy time. Not with parents fighting, not with the adult unhappiness that permeated many of her days. The changes were occurring in her body and mind – coupled with an often dysfunctional household – coupled with her own personality – again I cannot blame her for seeking completion outside of us.
We all seek something.
The photo below is very illustrative of how I feel now. The memories are blurry but weirdly enough I remember THIS moment exactly as it appears in the photo. M going up that hill, her dad and sister in the front and me dragging behind as if I already knew in the moment the nostalgia I would hold seven years later when I rediscovered this image in a long forgotten file folder on my computer.
M.S.D. 9/22/2016