My First Post – What’s in a Photo?

First I want to thank Henry and Val and the rest of the folks here for giving me the op to publish here. I hope you enjoy the esoteric stuff of mine as I enjoy yours.
So for my first post I give you a picture that is not mine. It is from a studio photographer from Oriente Cuba who in the late 1930’s or early 1940’s was hired to photograph 2 sisters, my mom (on the left) and my tia (on the right).
The significance of this image like any photograph is for the viewer to wonder what was in the mind of the subject. Of course I cannot speculate what was in the mind of these two little girls. But I can assure that they never would have believed that in less than 30 years later, as young women, they would be forced to leave their homeland and never to see it again for nearly 50 years. This April marks the 50th year since my mom left Cuba to Miami. She came here as a prize winner of an art contest. She was told not to go back since things did not look good and was told to chill until things got better. They never did. She never returned. Being the only one here, in the 1960’s, she was the one who got out her parents and 4 siblings and their families.
Last February 2008, I took a picture of one of my best friends; someone who worked with me for a long time. A nice picture. What was in her mind at the time I took the picture? I’m sure it was, there’s Mike taking my picture again. Less than a month later she would be murdered. When I took that picture, no one thought that would be her fate. When she was captured on a Publix surveillance video doing her normal routine, she would never know that hours later would be her last on Earth. I still have the photo of her of course; as well as many others I took of her throughout the years which are the only memories that I have now. I have photos of friends and families that I take to capture the moment.
My point … take a lot of pictures of the ones you love. Do what you always wanted to do and do it now. Don’t wait. No one expects their country to be taken from them or that one day coming home some evil person will take our life.
I hope to post for you guys besides the occasional op ed that I find on interesting ironies from the left, but I also hope to post some pics from around Florida and the USA. If for some reason you can’t make it to the Wave in Northern Arizona, then I hope my pictures will take you there.
Cheers
— Cigar Mike