This is a composite panorama of me on the forward deck of the S.S. United States alongside my grandmother. I was aboard in 1999; she was aboard in 1952. A sort of connection between us across time.

To give you a sense of where we are, the small doorway to the right of my grandmother leads forward to the bow. Further to the right is a cargo hatch.

When my parents heard I was going to photograph the ship they gave me this photo taken when my grandparents visited their home country of Germany. I took the photo with me and after a bit of a search finally located the exact spot where my grandmother stood. When I aligned the image I had to raise the tripod high and I figured that the person shooting the photo of my grandmother must have been tall like me (6'2"). And then I realized my grandfather probably shot the picture. But the only memories I have of my grandfather were from over 30 years ago when I was a boy and I didn't remember him being particularly tall. But I guess he was and I discovered something new.

I also realized, much later, why my grandmother didn't look so happy. My grandparents, German immigrants, were visiting their family in Germany for the first time since before World War Two, which had ended only 7 years earlier. They must have been quite apprehensive.