My Father's Hands

I'm presenting this update as the explanation as to why I haven't updated my blog all week. I've been hard at work creating, editing and polishing this photo series for my graduate-level photo class! All the photos are mine, all the audio was collected in person and the editing was done in FinalCutPro over the course of the last week. Enjoy.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7swy1PAQXCs&w=640&h=360]

My photo series is called “My Father’s Hands.” It shows my father, Andrew H. Deziel Jr., reflecting on the skills his father, Andy Sr., taught him.

“Little Andy,” as he's sometimes called, was raised by his father after his parents divorced while he was in high school. At this pivotal time, Andy was picking his trade in technical school; seeing his father's work in manufacturing drove him to choose tool and die. In the interview, he spoke of the other skills his father taught him; electrical, plumbing, fishing, shooting trap, bike repair and auto mechanics, just to name a few.

His favorite skill, though—next to his trade—is his ability to play the guitar. As he explains, he learned guitar by watching and listening to his father play. When his father passed away in 2002, he acquired the more than 20 string instruments in his father’s home.

“I don’t know what it is,” he said in the interview for this series. “Sometimes I walk upstairs at the end of the day, and it’s dark and it’s like someone grabs me and says, ‘pick up that guitar.’ So I just do, you know? And I play until my fingers hurt and I’m all sweaty and out of breath. I think it’s Dad. It’s his guitar, and I think he just wants me to play.”

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