“THE QUESTION”: A photography exhibition by longtime Princeton resident Larry Parsons is on view through July 11 at Stonebridge at Montgomery in Skillman.

“THE Question,” a photography exhibition by longtime Princeton resident Larry Parsons, is on display through July 11 at Stonebridge at Montgomery. In the series, hand-carved Chinese figures of a young boy and a water buffalo — as well as a host of household objects — guide viewers through a narrative sequence of answers to an important question: What is the meaning of life?

Parsons is a longtime businessman as well as an avocational photographer who worked many years in investment management in the Princeton area. While studying history at Wake Forest as an undergrad, he was taken by the images illustrating historical tales, and his pursuit of
photography began in earnest in the 1970s when his parents gave him a camera.

The story idea for this series came to Parsons almost a year ago, in what his wife Jean recounts was a brilliant surprise of clarity in the midst of his cognitive decline due to dementia. Thanks to the help of many friends and community members, ‘THE Question” is also being developed into a children’s book, written in both English and Chinese. Numbered among Parsons’ collaborators are his companion Hannah Chomiczewski, a recent Princeton graduate, and Jiayi Li, who graduated from Princeton Charter School this month and aided in translating the work into Chinese.

Stonebridge at Montgomery is located at 300 Hollinshead Spring Road in Skillman. Known as a continuing care retirement community (CCRC), it offers increasing levels of care, from independent living to assisted living, rehabilitation, skilled nursing, and memory care services. For more information, call (609) 683-8355.