Each week as I prepare to write and slow down this “flickering” through the feed of IG images I look forward to my journey into the world of word and pictures as one getting ready for a short road trip. Once mobile the words come like quick vistas passing by. But this week an image submitted by @bigdaddylonewolf came with such a beautiful story that I decided to leave the metaphorical car in the garage. Instead I’d go for a walk, look up at the great big blue and just stare and reflect on the symbolism within her prose. I thought I’d ask her if I could recite the story verbatim and if she would be comfortable in sharing. She was. And so before I do I’d like to add this. This image is significant in that it’s addition brings a completeness to @thehashtagofman. Not that it has come to an end but that this group of strangers united by the image, assembled in this “non-place” have seen many of those aspects common to the original The Family of Man. It is with this image I feel we move from a non-place to a sense of place, where a beginning is born out of a completion, where we are tethered to a past through our present, where we feel perhaps a little bit of history. I find this extremely touching and thank you all for your stories found in the pixels and the glow.

The following is the story in the words of @bigdaddylonewolf:
This was my stepfather, Michael back in April. He was such a motorcycle enthusiast. This is one of the bikes he raced back in the 70’s. Somehow it got lost, or he sold it, but over 30 years later he found it in a bike shop in Glassboro, NJ and bought it back 🙂 I hope this picture captures his love for it…. @thehashtagofman This image is so personal and a little heartbreaking to me (my stepfather just passed away a week ago) that I was hesitant to share it outside of my followers, but I feel it belongs in your project. We (I) can often overlook the stories that go along with images and I guess I just want to share mine, or in this case, my stepdad’s, with such an incredible group of photographers, each with their own stories and histories.

IG @bigdaddylonewolf