THE WINDING WAY

by CHSJackie Halper

"When I was a child, sipping, on the porch, Guatemala iced tea in Spanish Harlem."

I was nine. I was always with my step brother Perry Poineneau then. Even now as I look back, I picture us riding our bikes through the neighbourhood, our endless summer holidays that came with his eccentric father who was a writer, and because he was a writer he was always looking for a story or being called to tell someone else's story. Although now I look back, I see it was a soul reward rather than a financial one. He took us along, and our mother a house full with too many mouths to feed, gladly palmed me off to my former husband to a life on the road. We loved going on what we called ‘sumjours’ short for summer journeys. We loved the way it felt in our mouths; like the word scrumptious. And speaking of scrumptious, nothing was spared when my step father came to feeding us. He fed us lavishly and I always wondered where he had the money to do so, when all my life all I had seen so far, was my mother scraping and scraping to make all the ends meet. He would stuff little bags full of soft buttery bread rolls, sweet pastries, crisps and candy. We would munch quietly on rich chocolate cakes as we sat beside him as old people poured out their heartfelt tales of their life, sometimes another life, or a life that they had wished they had lived years ago. We travelled to India, Africa, the Caribbean and Guatemala once, but the best part was when the world, our world became quiet and still and nothing but the voice of the storyteller would be heard. I was only nine then, but it gave me a lot to think about as I grew up; the world from the eyes of a child changing as I grew into a woman. I saw that life was a journey of many chapters of many moments and events. If anything, one thing that those travels taught me was that moments ought to be recorded and documented. It was around that time that I also got my first coin box. And I knew instantly what I would save for. I would save every penny I had to buy a camera. It was the first real decision I ever made, for my life, for me. Not made by my Uncle, by my step father, my dear mother or by circumstance. A choice made by me. And so it was, that one afternoon on the porch, standing with my things, at the end of home and at the beginning of a new chapter, the time came for me to start my own life journey. Hard work and the unforgettable sacrifices of my mother propelled me to a new life for me at Pittsburgh University. And it was there, right there, that I began my love affair with photography.

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VIEW THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF JACKIE HALPER

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