Portrait 062. (Taken with instagram)
- liang was the first to actively want to be in the pictures.
- he posed early and often, and i hated all the images. why did he stand like that? stopping whatever he was doing, dropping whatever he was holding, lifting his chin, puffing his chest?
- my father used to talk about his parents’ need to pose in front of significant landmarks on vacation, always with the two of them in the exact same pose, always blocking whatever object signified their locale. over a lifetime together they amassed an obscene collection of these images in which every shot was nearly identical. my grandmother was fair-skinned and as such, had worked out a pose for the two of them that they adhered to for the duration of their lives. she would stand slightly behind my grandfather and he would lean slightly forward, and when the flash went off it would wash him out just enough for them to appear more even in tone.
- i hear about these photographs, twinged with the amount of frustration and disdain only a child can reserve for his parents, but i don’t know where they went after their passing.
- my parents rarely take pictures.
- liang has ceased his incessant posing.