Mary Hockenbery (reddirtrose)
79
I’ve never met Touffic. Never spoken to him, never exchanged an email or text. But if I saw him on the street, I’d recognize him. I’d feel completely comfortable walking up to him and saying hello. I don’t know him, but I like him.
Mary Hockenbery has been posting photographs of Touffic for at least fifteen years. In every photo he looks comfortable, at home, at ease within himself, interested in what’s going on around him, approachable. Every photo is imbued with love and affection — and it’s important to consider the distinction between the two. Love is deep and complex; affection is relatively simple and rests more lightly on the shoulders. In every photo Mary shoots of Touffic you can tell she just really likes him. And that makes me like him.
This is one of the few photographs I’ve seen of Touffic in which he isn’t smiling. Or about to smile. But the love is there. The affection, it’s there. And the smile — yeah, it’s there too, waiting. I don’t know Touffic, but I feel like the smile is never very far away.
Blog photograph copyrighted to the photographer and used with permission by utata.org. All photographs used on utata.org are stored on flickr.com and are obtained via the flickr API. Text is copyrighted to the author, greg fallis and is used with permission by utata.org. Please see Show and Share Your Work
