A Passion for Pictures

There has definitely been a penchant for pictures in my family, both for taking pictures of relatives and for having pictures taken. This tradition of portrait-taking must have started in the early twentieth century when the German side of my family made a habit of photographing their outings and gatherings, and then send the shots to my grandfather Walter, who had emigrated to Spain in the early twenties. That was how they kept the family connection going, by sending each other physical images of their daily lives by post. In return, my grandfather would send his brother and sisters back home several shots of my mother María Luisa, a wonderful creature born from a blond Arian father and a strikingly southern-looking mother, my beloved grandmother María. Little María Luisa was a doll that just had to be immortalized by portrait photographers so her far-away German relatives could witness such emerging beauty. cmg

Tante Ellen, Tante Margot and Tante Lisel,
posing cheerfully, like Three Graces, in the 1960s. 

[post in progress]