A Life in a Day

As I sit here behind the warm aluminum hot dog cart that I have devoted my last few years to, I ponder my life and the decisions I have made. I am an artist and have suffered thusly. The hotdog cart , steaming with metallic tastes and stirring with the odor of spilled catsup has been my lifeblood and provided me the time and mental space to pursue my passion of photography. Since I have been situated by a permit to work the same street corner in the financial district of San Francisco, the focus of my art has transitioned.

After graduating college, I wanted to pursue landscape photography, but then I had more ambition. I needed to pay the bills and took this job and here I am several years later. Because of my environment, I began photographing people rather than landscapes and I get the occasional family portrait job. Now, most of my work is anonymous shots from a distance capturing unsuspecting actions thus illustrating the uncensored lives of ordinary people.

Yesterday, while taking some candid shots, I unknowingly photographed a dying man on a colorful fall day who came to pass on a park bench. Only moments later did I come to realize that the man had been taking his final breaths. The beauty of this peaceful man coming to the end of his long life was brilliant yet has tirelessly perplexed my mind. In the short time since yesterday, I have had an introspective vision and calmness of confidence that I am living as I should and that a life devoted to the pursuit of happiness will make sense in the end.


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