Several people have asked, “Hey man, what’s that cover picture all about?” or said, “Dude, it looks likes you’re dead! In short, it’s an allegory (a method of communicating a message through symbols and images) of my life up to this point. The child in the picture has clearly been through a lot in his early life. The straight face and saddened eyes give a sense of a boy filled with worry. When I find my two boys saddened, I embrace them with a hug. That’s the reason for embracing my picture. That Broken Child needed a hug, and if I could travel back in time, that’s exactly what I’d do.
You can’t really tell in that cover photo, but I even went through the painstaking process (12 reruns of a YouTube video and 25 minutes later) of tying a trinity knot to represent past, present, and future (see if you can find my tie in other pictures throughout the web page!). The vibrant red is symbolic of courage, passion, action, love and intensity. The suit was…well, I just look good in a suit!
Now, what kind of crazy person lies in a cold creek in fresh threads? This guy…anything for the perfect shot! That’s my artistic flare coming out of the woodworks, which hasn’t happened since my grade school days. The image came to me while dreaming one night, and the photographer was able to snap a mirror image of what I conveyed to her. The water symbolizes a cleansing or letting go of a past that I never had the will to confront until I unveiled it on paper. Water currents, rough and smooth alike, are largely representative of life. While the waterways (future) can’t be seen over their entire distance, it indeed goes on. Life ebbs and flows much in the same way; inconsistently and beautifully at the same time.
Photo (all talent, no photoshop required) courtesy of Amy Jenkins, In His Light Photography.
The Broken Child Mended Man e-book is available at several online booksellers:
