Sir, - Many thanks for the outstanding supplement, "Exposure 99", published with your edition of January 19th. Every page carried a memory of the year just gone and it really brought home how important the role of photography is in a world of multi-media mergers and internet mania. For me though, one photograph stood out and it was one I came back to again and again.
On page 84 is a picture of a resident of the Royal Hospital in Donnybrook being comforted by a volunteer during a weekly singsong. I asked myself many questions and experienced a number of emotions looking at this image: admiration for the helper, whose compassion is plainly evident; realisation that without compassion we lose our humanity; wondering if the elderly resident saw in the New Year; hope that our charitable instinct does not lessen as prosperity increases; realisation that one day I too may depend on the charity of others; thanksgiving for health in mind and body; resolve to give of my time more freely to those in need.
I could go on; but suffice it say that amid pictures of great events, political achievements, personal triumph and disaster, this image has really struck a chord - for the reasons I mentioned already but also for that undefinable "something" which I still can't quite put a finger on. Maybe that is the true measure of a master photographer. If so, Frank Miller certainly deserves that title. - Yours, etc.,
Alan O'Flaherty, St Manntan's Road, Wicklow.