August 1, 2022

Reflection 

PHOTOGRAPHS

Now with digital and phone cameras there are a lot more amateur photographers.

Will the pictures last?

Will they go the way of e-mail letters?

At a 90th Birthday party yesterday people were looking at photographs - especially of grandma from long ago.

One granddaughter - aged 20 or so had pen in hand - and a xeroxed copy of a photo from the 1930's.  She was asking, "Who's who?" Then she jotted down the name of a person and something above each person.

Photographs ....

They are captured scenes of flying time - like scenes out the window of a moving bus window....

Cement memories - these are photographs - of stopped time.

I went to see an exhibit of Anselm Adams photographs at the Michenor Museum in Doylestown, PA. I stopped to watch a video - that was ongoing all day long. In it Anselm is explaining his techniques - along with  the history of some of his famous photographs.

Photographs ....

What ever happened to a photo I took of Jesus - hands open - holding the rising sun coming up out of the ocean?

Why do I love a photo I have of my dad at 25 or so?

Why do I have a few shoe boxes of photos under my bed.

Photographs.

Trying to hold onto youth - good times - the past - the moment .... There we are in a beautiful place - and we know we have to leave - so we see people taking pictures  in National Parks - or at fountains - the ocean - mountains - lakes.

Yet we know time is moving ahead.  One's body clock - one's heart - one's skin - one's legs - one's lungs -  and all the rest of me has a time limit.

Ugh. That kills me.

Freeze - the frame of the present - is not lasting.