The latest Stories from Home comes courtesy of Stefan Vanthuyne and has an eerie familiarity to it. Find previous Stories here, here and here.
Stefan Vanthuyne
“Are you done, dad?”.
Stefan Vanthuyne
“Are you done, dad?”.
“Almost.”
He’s on a beach in France and he wants to climb the rocks and kick the
waves.
He’s anxious and because of that he’s not settling into that state where
he’s letting it all go and he’s just there; that moment of mere being.
He is ten now. I’ve photographed him many times. It used to be easy. He
would be doing something – or nothing, I would see something, I would ask him
to hold still.
For a second he would release everything, let his mind drift somewhere, and
there it was: a swift picture.
Ask me why I photograph my children and I’ll most likely lose my way in trying
to find a sufficient answer.
Of his
photographs of his wife Edith, Emmet Gowin said that they established Edith as
a person, and them as a couple.
“If you set
out to make pictures about love, it can't be done”, Gowin said. “But you can
make pictures, and you can be in love. In that way, people sense the
authenticity of what you do.”
By photographing my sons, am I establishing them
as such? Am I establishing myself as their father?
Do I find authentic proof of my fatherhood in
the photographs of my children?
“Da-ad, are you done?!”
He’s too anxious now.
“Yes, I am. I’m done.”
He runs off.
I press the shutter.
If you would like to contribute to Stories from the Home Front (word and image), send me a message at colinpantall@yahoo.co.uk
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