Frame Lines

It was late at night and everyone in the house was sleeping except me. My wife and I were in Morganton, NC visiting my wife’s daughter (my stepdaughter) and her family. In the silence of the night, with only a table lamp on, I found myself staring at the door frame. I began to study all the markings on the door frame, which were lines drawn to measure the heights of the children on their birthdays, made year after year. It began to sink in how important and how moving the frame lines on this door were. It was a visual history of the children, growing from babies to young adults. The annual ceremony of the children getting in place in front of the door frame, standing still as the line was drawn, then dating and writing their name beside the line, started to play like a film in my mind. In my mind I saw the joy, the laughter, the excitement, the dropped pencils, the crumbs from a birthday cake, balloons — and in this film rolling in my head I saw them growing up little by little, and I realized how precious those moments were. I was overcome with emotion. I reached for my camera bag, pulled out my camera, adjusted the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO and made this photograph. These frame lines are the life lines of a beautiful family, a family filled with love for one another. A family who places faith and love above acquisitions and possessions. A family who lives simply in a complex world. This door frame is a reminder of how quickly life passes and how important it is to document the moments that we treasure in our hearts.