When asked about this blog I often talk about how it's been an important part of my photographic process – that this place has been a springboard for ideas yet to be understood. I've had two unplanned projects emerge from my posts here. I photographed throughout the spring and summer I've been a bit stuck on what to do with the new images.
I'm sharing a series that was made while waiting in a parking lot. We were exhausted from a week of togetherness out at the beach. It was a vacation that followed a summer of separation with little correspondence sent home from camp. Some letters were mere scribble, unsigned. Others listed the items to bring up on Visiting Day. Friends told me not to fret and that our boys were happily immersed in camp life. It's true that we were all elsewhere and occupied, but I was a little crushed.
These photographs remind me that it's okay to be together and still be apart. It seems that disconnection is essential to growing up and growing older. They are about letting go.
I'm hoping that these photographs will tell me what to do next. Will one of these images end up in either of my projects or head in a new direction entirely? Maybe this blog post will be their final destination. I'd like to hear from you. Tell me what these photographs say to you, if anything.
Lovely, and lovely writing. I have trouble reducing them.
ReplyDeleteI have been thinking lately, and these did remind me of this, about the different stages in my life, and how the part with children, which started out as intense as a love affair, and looked like it was going to last forever, is really just one part of things, and something whose diminishment is going to allow me to work more. I see you in the car with your boys, working.
as a senior reader of this wonderful post, it took me back to a time of summer camp, young boys, and the beginnings of boredom when hanging with parents. it made me smile. while we had no smart phones, we did have game boys!
ReplyDeletei'm not sure when the first pang of "these kids are going to grow up and leave" hits, but that is what i saw in this series. I saw it. if i was in it, i would have seen it differently. at least, i think i would, i think i would have noticed the boredom or the distance or the fidgeting and not accessed my anxious feelings.
who knows if this will be a series beyond this. it is one right now, and i like it!
You do a great job of capturing each generation doing their job - I remember it well - have to let go to get them back; hold too tight and they will flee for the long term - Your pictures say it all even without your words - thanks, Yvette Meltzer
ReplyDeleteThese are fabulous. I especially love the middle image. It captures the disconnect so well, and yet the two of you are still one and of each other to the viewer. I love the lighting in all of them. My only advice would be to let go of holding too tightly to the need to build a project. Just keep shooting from your heart (as you do so well). The images will find their own place and context.
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