Words + Images

I recently roped my friend Steve into showing his photo of sunlight shimmering in water at the RGC3 – Riverside Gallery @ Cambridge Community Center.  When we arrived at the closing reception, the organizer commented that several children had dropped in from the adjacent community center and had admired his work.  She’d encouraged them to come back later and “meet the photographer!”  Well, they did come back.  Three little boys between 8 and 12 years of age, maybe.  Now Steve is a plasma physicist who works with light.  Ask him about the photo and he will immediately start talking about caustics and light refraction and such.  But he didn’t start talking.  He simply asked the boys why they liked his photo.  One pointed and said “It looks like alligator skin!”  Another said, “No, like a turtle’s back!”  Both Steve and I certainly looked at his photo anew.  How about you?  What do you see?