My old friend Tim is popping up everywhere these days. He was the staff photographer at Phoenix New Times when I arrived in 1993 (a position that sadly hasn’t existed in years) and we pal-ed around for a few years, working on stories together and wasting time the way people waste time before they have kids. A long time ago, Tim and his wife Cheri moved to northern California, where he’s got a great mix of commercial, editorial and personal photographic projects going. You can see it at timothyarchibald.com.

I keep up a bit with Tim on Facebook these days; it’s been years since our paths crossed. He’s got two kids of his own now. Yeah, we’re both busy. No more time for making web sites devoted to gummi candy (really! embarrassing!) or driving around south Phoenix, waiting for story ideas to emerge.

Back to the popping up “everywhere” thing. First, Tim popped up last week in a book I’m reading — Bonk by Mary Roach. I highly recommend it and yes, it’s about what you think it’s about: sex. Sex and science. I shouldn’t have been surprised that Roach showed up at an event for a photo book Tim did years ago, about sex machines (literally).

Then, just a day later, Sophie got to a top shelf in her room (I guess she is getting taller) and pulled down a stack of snapshots. “Who’s this?” she asked, holding up a photo of a bald guy in glasses cradling a tiny baby. “That’s my friend Tim holding you,” I told her, remembering (again) that I hadn’t yet posted a piece about Tim’s work, vis a vis the question of whether we should be writing about our kids. So now I will.

Tim does something that’s arguably even more personal and potentially invasive, I suppose, than writing about his kids. He photographs his kids. I’m not surprised, looking back on the days we worked together, that he mines his life, pushes the envelope in this way. I was always impressed by the fact that no matter the assignment, Tim would take extra time with the subject (be it person or object) to make his own work. For him, it was never just about the job, and it was incredibly inspiring to watch.

I feel the same when I look at the work involving his children. You can see it on his web site, and in his latest book, Echolilia — details are on the site about that, too. There’s an image above from the book, and here’s an excerpt from an interview Tim did with a blog called Too Much Chocolate on the topic of what it means to make art about your kids.

Like Trish, Tim has encouraged his kids in their own creative pursuits, particularly Eli, who makes his own images (featured in Echolilia) and actually has his own blog, which I love (but won’t link here because I’m not sure how private Tim keeps it).  This stuff goes beyond writing about your kids, but I think you’ll dig what Tim had to say in the interview with Too Much Chocolate:

If your subject is your kid, access is rarely the problem- everything you need is right in front of you. Being the Dad and then trying to let go of that role and then try to collaborate with my son… oh that is the problem. What will I do to get the photograph? What license will I give him? What line will I cross myself to make the image happen, only to then switch over and be the Dad moments later when the shoot is over?

Here we are re-creating an accident together. Here we are wrapping him in rubber bands….something he did already but this time in just the right light. Is he consenting to this stuff? I showed this work to a friend who responded “ Photographers always claim to be collaborating with their subjects. The truth is we are willing to do anything to get what we want from them. We’ll steal what we can as quickly as we can or pay any price after that if the stealing doesn’t work. You know that is true.” I didn’t disagree.