The yearbook portrait

yearbook portrait

yusselah c joseph gordon 2015

this portrait by a photographer in a small city in upstate new york shows my partner as a young woman. i have seen this picture many times over three decades. it is so familiar to me that i have to exercise my depth of vision just to see it. getting it into the eye takes work and even more concentration to hold the images freshly in my mind. i have to push back and forth on the slouch of my memory if I want to loosen up enough brain cells to gain a new take on an old icon. last week, i received an unannounced visit from the portrait. even as I sat miles away from the box that holds it, the features of the face and the grey tones of the print itself began imposing visually on me. the picture appeared to be everywhere: in my day dreams, in my night dreams, and in the faces of my two adult children.

In loving memory of Donald Slavit.

Had he only lived longer, who knows how much more love your children would have known.

yearbook the first portrait

yusselah

yusselah copyright 2015 joseph c josephgordon gordon 2015