The first picture was taken just after I moved to Atlanta in 1994. I was angry, lonely, fluffy and…lonely.
The second picture was taken in a photo booth in the US Embassy in London. I’d just washed my hat hair in the ladies room sink and shoved the last of my octaginal coins into a slot in the wall.
Funny that I had returned to the same hair style all those years later, but my eyes had somehow grown…was it the fear of being trapped in England forever, or the alarm at how much I’d just paid for a lack of barcode on an EU passport or the efficiency with which the government can work when not on American soil (though technically an embassy is on our soil, blah blah blah)?
The last picture was taken a few weeks ago at work. I look at it and in comparison I see a happier, more evolved and stabilized me - as though the uncertainty trapped in the other two had graciously lost its way.
Only an illusion, and one created for the US government at that.
Go figure.
P.S. I’d also like to point out that I’m wearing black in all three pictures. Some things never change…like black being perfect.
Update: Just because, here’s my Irish passport picture - dated, even. I look like a thug, and I’m not wearing black. :\
17 Oct 06
9:48 am
There’s a girl in my dissertation group that wears mostly or all black all the time, and it looks perfectly fine: casual but elegant, you know? And badass, too. Considering how hard it is for me to think clearly enough in the morning not to wear black socks with brown shoes, I began to envy her wardrobe and contemplated following a similar monochromatic trend.
But dudes who wear all black all the time? They just look weird. Goth wannabes or paramilitary dorks or the next Harris & Klebold. Chicks in black: fine. Dudes in black: creepy. What’s up with that? It’s not fair.
17 Oct 06
9:55 am
I donno, kinda worked for Uncle Albert…maybe you could give it a whirl, revive a trend as it were.
http://www.maigh.com/2005/01/30/my-boy-albert/
17 Oct 06
10:29 am
Johnny Cash, not cool?
17 Oct 06
12:50 pm
Anyone that wears black can’t be all bad.
17 Oct 06
1:28 pm
You’re very brave and very photogenic even when you’re not smiling… how do you do it?!?
No one (except Barry) gets to see my passport pictures, ev-er. They are that bad.
17 Oct 06
3:09 pm
At least you look the same in most of the photos. are they all taken recent to each other. I know all my passport pics are completly different. I will see I I post mine when I return stateside.
17 Oct 06
3:12 pm
BTW. as in same I mean same person.
17 Oct 06
6:45 pm
You.Are.Brave. I shudder to think of people even looking at my license photo. However, you said something in the post that I wanted to acknowledge….(not that I count for anything, really). BUT
I do see something in your eyes in the 3rd phota that I do not see in the other photos. And there is a different glow to your face in it as well.
Radiant, dahling. Radiant
17 Oct 06
10:50 pm
Brave? Photogenic? Me? You girls are sweet, I wouldn’t have thought either of those things!
And Tab, you’re right…must be love. Or somethin’.
18 Oct 06
6:30 pm
You aged gracefully, elegantly, and…and beautifully. Being that I’m probably the same age as you were in the first picture I think it’s remarkable that I find the latest picture to be more pleasing to the eye
19 Oct 06
8:06 am
Awwww, thanks, Dan. You just made my day!