This content has been archived. It may no longer be relevant
The start of a new year is precious, full of promise and relatively rare. It arrives accompanied (or perhaps buoyed) by fantastic anticipation and once arrived it simply Is – ours to enjoy and love and struggle with – ours with which to live. In the short, new shadow of 2011’s dawn I write this with full appreciation of the fact that apparently a new year is very much like a new baby.
Andrew Christopher was born 11 weeks early. I photographed him at 12 weeks old. I can’t quite decide if that makes him 3 months or 1 week old in these photographs, a distinction whose significance will surely fade with time because he’s in great health – shiny and new. He is tiny, but he’s filling out and his big, sweet eyes suggest he’s got things under control in the growing department. Andrew spent most of our session awake – alert and happy, but very much awake. When his mother and I tucked him into a waiting basket, however, he melted into a deep baby slumber.
Andrew’s mom’s family is from an island in the western Pacific, Saipan, and Andrew’s home is filled with intriguing mementos of lives lived there. We used just a few of them in the session to suggest his connection to places physically far away but culturally and emotionally so very near.
Happy new life to Andrew’s family near or far and Happy New Year to all.
*******
