Let me introduce three men who wrote different letters to me: Dan Biferie from Florida, Shahidul Alam from Bangladesh and E.R. Beardsley from California. In these letters I found comments either about a father, or about their sons, which when I first read them left me very emotional. I could only describe such letters as myth shattering, the myth being that men do not talk -or write- about intimate matters to other men. What also caught my attention was that all those involved in these letters, either as protagonists, authors or me, as recipient, are male figures.

These letters came from three photographers, and they arrived by way of the Internet. Having first met through electronic means, all three of these artists in time became my friends (they have yet to meet each other). Another cliché that has been rendered transparent through this correspondence is the notion that email is not the appropriate medium to communicate content that matters.

I have always found that labels of any kind tend to distort perceptions and true understanding of meanings. Sensitivity has been one of those values that have been hijacked away from the male world, just as the understanding of what email can be used for has been distorted to exclude the possibility of human touch. Let us hope that this correspondence will provide you with the evidence to think otherwise on both counts.

I thank the authors for giving us permission to reproduce these letters as well as their accompanying photographs.

Pedro Meyer