Photography by Lisa DIngle

Like many people, I don’t really care for photographs of myself, an uncomfortable irony for a photographer who is always seeking to photograph other people. Maria takes photos of me sometimes, I can hardly object I take so many of her, but I hardly ever like it, I have a long history of hiding myself.  But I was touched by this moment my friend Lisa Dingle caught when we both visited George Forss, we were both picking up photographs we had bought from him, he sells them on his blog, they are one of the great bargains anywhere – master photographic works for $65, they are still available.

I was admiring his photograph of the World Trade Center Towers, taken a few years before they were destroyed and he insisted I accept it as Christmas gift. George is a hero to me, I admire him and love him so much, I was moved by this gift and couldn’t quite believe I was being given this as a Christmas present, George is one of the most accomplished photographers in the world. His photographs of New York are masterpieces, hailed all over the world, they are a chronicle of a lost world.

Lisa Dingle was wielding her new Olympus camera and caught this feeling, not an easy thing to do on the spur of the moment in a dark room. She caught what I was feeling somehow. I thought I should share it. Creativity is a virus, it spreads.