Remember...

Sometimes I get really frustrated with my job. It seems like for every thing that makes me like the job, there are two things that make me dislike it. So every now and then I need to make a point to remind myself of the things that make me like it.

Run on sentences aside, here is one of those things.

As a photog I get to see things that I probably would never see, either because I wouldn’t have the opportunity, or in the case of this story, probably wouldn’t have made the effort. But I did get to attend a Memorial Day service at Camp Butler National Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois in May 2004.

This service is one of the things I remember so vividly. Simply, it was this old man here. The still doesn’t do this man justice. But what is happening is the color guard is marching in with all the flags. He salutes and as he ends his salute, a single tear rolls down his face.

I don’t know this mans name. I don’t know where he’s from or what his story is. All I know is that the image of him saluting the flags and the tear rolling down his cheek will be burnt into my mind for the rest of my life.

My point? My point is that one of the things that makes me feel the way I do about this job is that I am sure that someone else saw this story, saw this man salute, and watched the single tear roll down his cheek and is now just like me.

Remembering him; remembering the emotion he displayed seeing his flag marched in front of him, for the rest of their life.

That is what I want to do. Impact people. And while I understand that not every story will do this, this one may have. And at least now I can acknowledge that my life’s purpose is partially fulfilled. And you know something else? This story is one that actually made me feel like I earned the title ‘Photojournalist’.

I’d like to post the entire story online, soon as I can figure out how without hogging up all my bandwidth (raw file is 450 MB!).