“Photographs open doors into the past, but they also allow a look into the future.” –Sally Mann

With two older sisters and one younger brother, I grew up in a hell household where women had no value.

This is a photograph of my sister Debra taken in Cuyama, Ca. She was with friends in the high desert shooting old cans and bottles.

Deb was strong and defiant. Five years younger, I was quiet and watchful, taking mental notes of everything Deb did.

Deb escaped when she was 18, driving an old VW bus from the east coast to the west, alone and with only a handful of dollars in her pocket. When money ran low during Deb’s trek, she would stop and do bits of waitressing.

She ended up in Ojai, California, where she started her own very successful drywall finishing business, the first woman to do so in that field.

Without Deb, I am not sure how I would have ended up. But having my sister’s beacon to follow, I persevered, and in the early 1980’s also chose a male-dominated field to go into — photojournalism.

We both found and continually find ways to stick it to dad. ~shared by @seeclicksend