Love Lessons

One day I was driving on a country road when I saw a sailboat listing in the weeds. It seems like a very long time ago but has only been six years. I was photographing the boat when a man appeared and asked me what I was doing. “You don’t see many boats out here.” , I said. We started talking. He said his name was Wayne and that he lived here all his life. Here was Valley Ford, CA. He was very nice and I asked him if I could take his picture. He was one of the first strangers I ever approached.

Obviously he has an incredible face. It’s a face that tells stories, like all faces do, but his piques the imagination. His beard, I told him, is fabulous. But more than his face I remember his kindness and that moment will be forever etched in my memory. It was such a beautiful, lazy day. I had one of my daughters with me. She would have been 12 at the time. I remember thinking that this was, for her, a lesson in love. I never saw him again, though I’ve passed by several times since. But I will always remember him. How beautiful is that? We live on in the neural networks of strangers

Every person I meet, every person I photograph, becomes a part of me if only in that my brain dedicates a tiny cluster of neurons to their memory. Think about all the people in my head. In yours. Photographs help me to reinforce those clusters. I take photos because I love people and I want to remember every one. Each person makes me a better person, a more loving person, and it’s love that will save this world.

I want to take your picture because I want to know you. That’s the truth. If I didn’t have to charge money I wouldn’t. Unfortunately that’s what we need to do to live comfortably in this world. But I envision a day when I just take pictures for free, meaning that no cash is exchanged. But that doesn’t mean I’m not getting paid. You are giving a small part of yourself to me, and I will have that for a long time. I will remember.