What is in a Photograph?

By: Michael A. Horvich

June 4, 2013

With thanks to Susan Tillet: friend, mentor, confidant, fellow writer and artist. 

There is a beauty in youth that does not speak to us in age.

We see a photograph of what we once were and we amaze.

It is the beauty of hope

It is the beauty of innocence

It is the beauty of a life not yet lived

Not yet fully enjoyed

Not yet terribly suffered

Seeking to understand

That is not to say there is not beauty in age that speaks to youth.

We see a photograph of what we are becoming and we reflect.

It is the beauty of experience

It is the beauty of knowing

It is the beauty of wisdom

Not yet finished

Not yet completed

Seeking to discover

With increasing difficulty, the beauty of youth can still be see in old age.

The photographs of what we were often lost, in a shoebox go unnoticed.

The mirror gets clouded

The mirror gets distorted

The mirror gets tarnished

Not yet gone

Not yet over

Seeking to re-discover

When our physical beauty has turned to wrinkles and wonders,

The photographs will be to be remembered not to be remembering.

• • •

When we stop to look back will we see,

Really see who we were and who we have become,

And ask, what is beauty really as we go from youth to old age?

There is no photograph that can truly reflect or tell our story.

There is only you. There is only me. To live. To love. To die. 

To leave behind something, better than it was before.