Article Link: http://stage.exchangepress.com/article/a-manner-of-speaking/5013504/
We just got home from the Titze Family Reunion in Worthington, Minnesota. It was the heartwarming, relationship-building orgy of hugging, storytelling, and eating that family reunions are expected to be. As the spouse, I was a bit preoccupied with such issues as how to hold my own in the joke-loving crowd, what to wear, remembering names, doing Roger and his parents proud. Now and then I ventured from my own preoccupations to consider what Roger might be feeling as he joined this throng of relatives and how I might want him to behave!To share my role as photographer with my nephews Karl (age 9), Mark (age 7), and John (age 6), I gave each of them a disposable camera. You can imagine my photos: family groups, chance encounters, moments. I want to tell you about Mark's. (He was the only one who finished his roll in time to develop the film and enjoy the photos together.)
My photos represented an adult perspective; Mark's gave us the reunion from a child's eye view. He captured a cousin's nose, Roger's crotch, the back of a shirt. His subjects were his brothers (although he said that John was not an intended subject), his ...