Looking Back

Chip Oglesby bio photo By Chip Oglesby

“If you don’t know where you’ve come from, you’ll never know where you’re going.” I’m not sure who said it, but they were smart. Why is it that I can never think of something that clever that everyone will be saying for the rest of there life? Maybe one day, but not today.

Today was my day off, well the better part of today. I worked a whopping total of 3.5 hours. Laugh all you want, but considering the past 4 days have all been an average of 10.5 hours apiece, I don’t even consider 3.5 hours anything. Today was a day of rest and relaxation. I surfed the blogger site, reading random blogs, and apperently, there are a lot of people with Chinese blogs, followed by love blogs and tying in at thrid, political blogs and poetry blogs. People have a lot to say, but are they really saying anything?

I know for a fact that three people read this blog. The main one, myself, and the others are two friends of mine. How do I know? they are the only two people who have left me comments. Thank you, you two people, you make this blog worth it. Actually, I don’t care if anyone reads this blog or not, this blog is strictly for me. It is being used as more of a photo diary, than anything else, so one day, when I look back, I’ll know where I came from.

Speaking of which, here’s one of my favorite photos, based purely on the subject matter, my father. My parents have been divorced since 1990, which is a long time, but I still love them both dearly. I took this picture my junior year, when I lived in Myers with my fraternity brother dan on the second floor, down at the end. Why is that special? Because we had the biggest room in Myers, minus the Ra’s room. But I photograph my dad as much as possible. Not because he is famous, but because there are a lot of memories I have of him, and a lot that I’d rather forget, so for me, it’s like documenting history, for my family.

Later on in college, once I worked for the Fort Mill Times, I discovered that other than just liking girls, I found that I saw the inner beauty in all girls, not just the most beautiful ones. The girl that I fell in love with, Christy, my girlfriend, taught me this. It’s about more than just looks, sex appeal, or money, it goes deeper than that, and she taught me how to find that in myself.

I always loved taking portraits of people. I’ve said it before, but the most revealing feature about people: Eyes. There is a wealth of knowledge and insight in people’s eyes, you just have to look. You can see such a range of emotions and so much more by looking people in the eyes.

Two of the people that I first photographed in college was Megan and Laura, both truly unique and awesome girls. Laura, a very tall and slender Audrey Hepburn look a like, a Megan, a bubbly, outgoing girl who just has the all american cuteness, let me photograph them, I’ll never know why. But I had the best time doing it, almost as much fun as doing documentary work at the time. If you ever want to learn about people, ask them to let you photograph them, you’ll learn a lot, trust me.

Times have changed, and some of my interst has changed in what I enjoy photographing, but documenting and photographing people will always be at the center of my heart. The way that we do this will change, naturally, but the love it it will always be the same.

like the saying goes “remembering where you came from, will help you with where you’re going.” Good night and God Bless.