I want to take a minute to talk about a Rick I knew.
I’d been following the work of a particular photographer for a number of years. It started when he commented on some of my photos, and I looked at his photos and commented in kind. We started following each other’s work, eventually spreading from my-expressions.com to flickr to twitter. Last year, Rick made the unfortunate announcement that he had been diagnosed with cancer. His communication became more sparse, and eventually stopped.
I finally found out the other day that Rick had indeed passed. It made me sad, and it makes me think a lot about how we connect with people, particularly online.
This was what I knew about Rick:
- he lived in Vancouver
- he was a photographer
- he had a cat
- he liked to photograph discarded coffee cups
That’s it. I never knew Rick’s last name, or what he looked like, or what he actually did for a living. I don’t know if he had family that he was close to, or a best friend. I hope he did.
Did I know him well? Not at all. But I still felt a connection, and it’s one that may not have happened any other way, except for online. It’s a good reminder that the people on the other side of the screen are real.
