Below is a little essay I wrote after finishing our photos. I have submitted it to our local paper (Panama City, Florida, USA) and am hoping they will run it. Enjoy and leave me your thoughts! To most he is just a shabby man in a bowler hat and moustache, white-faced and sallow; optimistic, yet often spat upon by the circumstances in which he finds himself. To many actors and directors, he is an icon. Yet many people today have never actually seen his work. In spite of this dichotomy, 30 years after his death and 93 years after his film debut, Charlie Chaplin remains a virtual magnet for the eyes. For those, like myself and my family, who have taken the time to familiarize themselves with his life and work (or at least those things he chose to make public), his stories are a solace for the heart and a kickstart to the funny bone. Chaplin's work covers several facets of human desire and emotion---one primal need science has yet to explain: laughter; an emotional puzzle science will never solve: love; and something technology has taken from us: compassion and empathy for our fellow man. Chaplin shows us these things. Not only that, he causes us to experience them again. Whether as the downtrodden innocent-rapscallion The Tramp, as the elitist Hitler-like Great Dictator, or as the gentleman wife-killer Monseiur Verdoux, Charlie never fails to touch those of us who still have a soul with which to feel. There is a timelessness to the characters in a Chaplin creation. They remind us of our loves and losses, our successes and frustrations, our needs and wants (and the differences between the two). Yet the most famous man of the last century takes us one step farther. He reminds us tht these things are universal among all humanity. If you dare enough to make even the briefest foray into the vast collection of his work, Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin can gently rewaken the vital seed of your humanity. I hope my family and I have managed to pay him some small tribute through our photos. I feel we did it as he would have done it--attention to the smallest detail, dedication to our vision, and a push to attain perfection. But, even more than that, I hope we have inspired someone to seek out a few DVDs (and not just the two-reeler comedies) and see a masterpiece for themselves. Take a trip back in time with the man who once ruled the silver screen.