Mike’s toy Mike’s favorite toy was a slinky. I took a photograph of him playing with it on one of my first visits to his Day Program. Mike is my older brother. He is autistic, low functioning and nonverbal. After living in a large institution for a good portion of his life, Mike was placed […]
Contact It is a real thrill to make contact. We visited our grandchildren in October of last year. William turned 7 months old while we were there. He was quite different than when we first saw him, after he was born. Then, all he did was sleep. As I understand things, infants can’t see that […]
Reexamining old photos I’ve been looking through my old photos with the idea of finding expressive and meaningful hand gestures. The photo below is a frame from one of the home movies that my father must have taken. We were on vacation in the late 1950s or early 1960s. I’m pretty sure of the date […]
I’ve taken many photographs of my older brother who is autistic, profoundly retarded and has never spoken. Many of my earlier photographs of him seem to capture hands. Sometimes the hand belongs to him, sometimes my hand is in the picture. Conventional wisdom is that a portrait photograph is about the subject and the photographer. However, […]
I may have been thinking too much lately. Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know that I have been trying to find a visual way to express my ideas and feelings. When I began my blog, my mission was to talk about autism from a brother’s point of view, […]
It seems that on this trip I am either starting something or ending something. I’m back in Chicago area, having ended a trip to New Jersey to see my original family, including Michael, my older autistic, profoundly retarded and nonverbal brother. I wasn’t hoping for a story book ending on our day trip to see […]
My upcoming visit to see my mother and my two brothers is on my mind these days. My visit to New Jersey is coming up in less than a week. I’ll be staying with Mom, and we’ll visit little bro in northern Jersey. All of us will drive out to see my older brother in […]
I hope I havn’t misled The major focus of my blog is autism from the point of view of a sibling. My older brother, Michael is autistic, low functioning and nonverbal. He was at home until I was about 10 years old. After he went to Willowbrook, a large mental institution on Staten Island, we […]
Why throw away interesting stuff? In preparing to move, I am sorting out my stuff. I always save little tidbits of interesting items. For instance, there was a short article about some man who just won a settlement against a tattoo parlor. The tattoo depicted a man stabbing someone in the back with a knife, […]
Current project Those of you who follow my blog know that my older brother is autistic, low functioning and nonverbal. On his 40th birthday I started a long-term photography project to try to figure out my relationship with him. It may be hard to believe, but I was never sure if my brother knew who […]
