It came in with the passing of a student, and now a former Marine (Korea), NYC fireman, and my former boss at PS-162 in Harlem has also gone. I was very green when he gave me my first class, and had no idea how good he was at his job- and how much easier he made mine. I was soon to learn when he retired ten years later. He had his private side, but he was eminently fair- and always there when you needed him. A class act, and a stand up guy to the very end. One day when he was leading tours at the NYC Fire Dept Museum in the Wall St. area, the public unknowingly got a brief glimpse of him on TV on 9/11. Ever the fireman, he ran his retired butt towards Ground Zero and was glimpsed ghostlike and unrecognizable, completely covered in white ash and dust.
I'll be returning to NYC this week for his wake, but I'll leave a few things on the stove here while I'm gone. Death never gets easier- I guess it just gets closer. Photography is very much the active denial of that inevitable end, and a celebration of a time well spent.
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