Both of my brothers – John and Joe – have passed away from cancer (respectively in 2023 and 2019). Both were kind and talented. Joe could fix anything and he went out of his way to help friends, neighbors and relatives. John suffered from mental illness, but that burden did not diminish his heart nor his talent. His short comic stories as well as his library of paperbacks (Chekhov, Vonnegut, Asimov, Pirandello, Greek and Norse myths) were my first influence as a writer-to-be. He had a particularly productive decade as a photographer (35mm and medium format) in the 1980’s. Below are a selection of those photos, starting with a portrait of my brother Joe. Some clearly show his absurdist sense of humor, recurrent images of refuse and trash or decay, as well as abstractions, and then to contradict that, pure form. The loneliness is apparent but also the beauty. (click on the slide show to expand to a full image)