When Rosemary, our two daughters, my mother and I moved to a little brick house (financed by my mother) in the outskirts of Mexico City we had a stressful life of commuting (on the dangerous Mexican Periférico freeway) in our VW to give our English classes to Mexican executives in American companies and to the hotel workers of hotels like the Camino Real.

Life was hard but we could afford to have a live-in caretaker for our daughters. It was then I began to dabble in photography. My cousin Roberto Miranda showed me his American Express card and suggested we go to American Photo Supply on Madero in downtown Mexico City to buy what I needed for a darkroom.

With that darkroom (in the bathroom of the service quarters) and with two 35mm cameras I began taking portraits of wealthy Mexicans in their homes. An executive I taught English to gave me leads and from there since I was doing something nobody else was doing the business took off.

I had a little leather-bound portfolio with sheets of black paper where I dry-mounted examples of my portrait work. One example was a narrow (cut to not show the fact that they were without clothes photograph of Rosemary and Ale who was perhaps a bit older than a year. I would have taken it in 1969 and printed it in my new darkroom perhaps in1971.

I went to Magnum frames to pick up to photographs, one for me and one for Ale. It is thisone from this blog.

I was surprised to find out there was a third framed photograph. For a bit I was confused and even noticed a vertical scratch in the photograph and that it was a tad light. Then I remembered. This photograph that has survived intact since 1971 was the very photograph from my Mexico portfolio.

As is I am sure that Alexandra Elizabeth Waterhouse-Hayward will appreciate its value.