In Defense of Photography

My first wife often wondered out loud,

“Why would you take photographs of people

you don’t know? And what’s with those

graveyard headstones? I’ve seen thousands

of sunsets on my own. They all look pretty

much the same as yours.” My second wife

would nonchalantly thumb through my album

and say, “That’s nice, but I could have found

far better things to do with all the time and

money you’ve spent.” The first wife and I

parted ways more than thirty-years ago; the

second wife passed away, I’m sad to say. I

never married again, figuring I wasn’t all that

agreeable at getting along in the first place.

Here’s a picture I took of a chimney sweep

on a trip to Germany in 1977. That was over

40-years ago. Captured on film in his prime

here, he remains unaffected by age, and still

continues to smile today. Hell, I’ve gone through

two wives and half a dozen automobiles since then.

Chris Hanch 9-18-17