It's Not Just a Glass

Sometimes the simplest pictures we take can be the most powerful. Take this image for example. On first glance it's just your basic, on-black studio shot of a glass. Nothing to fancy about it.

However, the glass itself belongs to my grandparents. It was given to them on their wedding day, 56 years ago. It survived through moves from California to Seattle. It saw the birth of my aunt and mother. It waited patiently after my grandmother had a terrible car accident in the early 1960's, an accident that left her severely handicapped. And it some how survived the onslaught of my sister and I when we came on the scene.

The glass has seen Christmases come and go, been raised at over half a century of New Year's Eves, and two years ago sat empty at the dinner table after my grandmother passed away.

These pictures we take can mean so much more than a mere collection of pixels. They can embody love and loss, life, death, joy, despair, the entire range of emotions. I know that while I was taking this image so much history flooded through me it was almost impossible to focus on the technical details. But I made it, just like my family has through all these years.

A simple picture, yes. But simple does not mean without depth. To myself and my family, this is not just a glass, it's our life.