Tommy told me that not everybody works in an inner city hospital and is just fascinated with parasites, diseases and gore. Why don't you blog about how you got started in photography, it's quite a story, Ok, so here we go.As some of you may know, I worked in the Letters to the Editor Department of the National Geographic. That was back in the neolithic period, which we needn't give a definitive year to. And for something to do, I took the photography course which I just loved. But I was going to be a writer. This was just a hobby. So what, the senior editors loved my work. The really important thing was writing.
One day at lunch, when I was sorting through my slides and talking about my latest idea for a romance novel, my good friend Ann said, "Maia, when are you going to wake up and see the truth, you are not a writer, you are a photographer. Look at these shots, they're gorgeous, and quite frankly, your writing isn't all that hot." I dismissed that. Photography was fun. It had always been fun, but I was a writer.
By the time September 11, 2001 arrived, I had tried and tried to be a writer. I had some small successes and some horrendous failures. Ann was on the plane that went into the Pentagon. As I watched the National Geographic tribute to her. and they played Somewhere Over the Rainbow, I heard her again say, as if she was sitting right next to me, "Maia you are a photographer."
After I stopped crying, I knew in my heart she right. And I so I decided to be one.
Well, that brought tears to my eyes...how tragic.
ReplyDeleteThat's a powerful story. I knew someone who flew into the first tower. It's such a small world. I was successful as a writer, as far as getting published often, but it didn't pay much. I couldn't make a living doing it. Ann steered you in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteThe real estate management company who controls a local business park made an angel for everyone who died in 9/11. They had them surrounding all of the business areas they manage. I called and I have Ann's angel and the elementary school child's who won the National Geographic contest and was on that flight.
ReplyDeleteI cannot be rational about those terrorists. The kind of person who would kill those innocent people. My neice is in the National Guard and she was there. She told me what happened. I am not religious, but here's what I hope for them. They thought they were going to ninety virgins, As a freind of mine so well said, honey if there's anything fair in life, those virgins were man hating large ladies with short haircuts wearing comfortable shoes.
Ann wasn't the only one I knew who died. Our tech support person went into Tower #1. Tommy was working for Aon and new all the people who from that company who died.
For those of us on the east coast, 9/11 is a nightmare that we live with.