Return Ticket

Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding still.

-Dorthea Lange

Every Father’s Day/ birthday / Christmas I struggled with what to get my grandfather, a simple man. As I sat with my cousins looking at photos my brother had posted, my Grandmother peered over and said, “Oh yes, he just emailed those to me.” Suddenly my grandfather threw his hands up, “Don’t people ever print photos anymore?”

I spent the next few days pulling photos from my family member’s social media sites and sent them in to be made into a photo book. My grandfather's eyes light up when he opened the book to see a photo of him and my grandmother with their children on the cover .

He smiled as he flipped through the pages. There was a page with photos of each grandchild on the inside; Mark waterskiing, Lauren playing soccer, Glenn and I working in their yard.

He took the book that evening to his neighbor’s house. The photos gave him prompts to tell a story about each of us. He kept the book on display in the living room to show guests. People who had not seen us since we were small were able to see how much we had grown and also how proud our grandfather was of us. Photos are a return ticket to a moment otherwise gone.