Recently I was in a restaurant when a baby with enormous chocolate eyes began to gaze at me from across the aisle. Not simply observing me, he was intensely engaged in studying every facet of my face, with the meticulousness of a seasoned surgeon preparing to open me up. Which of course in a manner of speaking he did, and when I smiled at him it was as if the universe itself opened to me in return, revealing the glorious heart of God in the form of a teething, drooling 7 month old boy. He held nothing back in his joyous connection with the strange woman who just so happened to be dining in the same place as he was that day. How I wished I could have photographed that exquisite simple moment! I’m not entirely certain how long our ardent exchange lasted when the baby tired of me, dropped his head to the edge of the wood table in front of him, and proceeded gnawing furiously on it. A perfectly natural progression of an evolving relationship that would soon go separate ways.

One day his mother will teach him that it’s impolite to stare at strangers, and after several years of reprimands for his infractions he will finally learn to not engage in such fanatical behavior. Lucky for me to be a photographer where such unadulterated stare downs are not at all impolite and actually encouraged.



~Cynthia