.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
About Me
Towards a future tome
my other windows-blog (with Michael Tweed)
Labels
- architecture (1)
- at dawn (2)
- at night (3)
- autumn (1)
- balcony (6)
- beach (1)
- bedroom window (3)
- Berlin (1)
- blinds (1)
- blue (11)
- books (1)
- Bucharest (1)
- cafe (1)
- child (1)
- colours (1)
- contemplation (2)
- curtain moods (10)
- curtains (5)
- curtains as longing (1)
- dust (1)
- everyday (1)
- filtered light (5)
- Florence (1)
- flowers in the window (21)
- flowery curtains (6)
- fluttering curtains (2)
- fog (2)
- forgotten stories (1)
- from my balcony (4)
- frost (1)
- gardens (1)
- gentle breeze (1)
- gentle light (1)
- german windows (1)
- glass house (1)
- glimpses into the life of others (1)
- hanging (2)
- hazy (3)
- her windows (1)
- Herculane (1)
- hotel (4)
- in the search for darkness (3)
- instead of windows (1)
- italian windows (8)
- joy (1)
- kitchen window (3)
- lamp in the window (5)
- lasker-schueler (1)
- light in the curtains (4)
- light-filled (2)
- little one (1)
- living room window (1)
- mirror (1)
- moments (1)
- morning (1)
- my bathroom (5)
- my block of flats (1)
- my childhood house (4)
- my curtains (3)
- my old house (1)
- my windows (5)
- night (2)
- nocturnal reverie (2)
- nostalgic (1)
- november (1)
- objects in front of the window (3)
- old (7)
- out of the window (1)
- Paris (1)
- people (1)
- postcommunist windows (8)
- rain (2)
- rainy (10)
- red (3)
- reflections (8)
- shadow (1)
- shower curtain (5)
- sleeping away at friends' (1)
- smudge (1)
- snow (2)
- spring (6)
- still life (2)
- strange (1)
- summer window (3)
- Targu-Jiu (1)
- tea (1)
- things (1)
- through curtains (2)
- through the window (2)
- Tismana village (1)
- transparent doors (1)
- Tranströmer (1)
- travel (1)
- treasures on the window sill (1)
- tree (2)
- university (1)
- Veliko Tarnovo (1)
- venice (2)
- Vienna (4)
- Vilnius (1)
- Wallace Stevens (1)
- white (1)
- window as escape (1)
- window pane (1)
- window sill (4)
- windows facing windows (1)
- windows of seasons (1)
- windowsill life (1)
- winter (5)
- women (5)
- wooden (1)
my title is rather mysterious: if you look at the reflections on the tv screen, you will see an older woman dressed in a flowery house robe, crossing the room (and the screen) - it is the old mother of the woman whose portrait is above the tv, who has gone to italy to work there. the mother is alone and feels alone in the house (the other daughter doesn't live with her either) and would do anything to get her daughters back. and in the right corner, you can see my own dark silhouette, taking the photo.
ReplyDeleteit is not necessary to know all this when looking at the photo, but it is necessary for me to tell you this, as i don't know why, my heart gets small and trembles looking at this intersection of lives here.
this image is deeply touching when experienced alongside your explanation. i seem to feel the weight of her despair in the slope of the mother's stance and roundness of her shoulders, and it is all given poignancy by your shadowy presence, the observer and reporter, though the mother is turned away, as if searching through her own misery and solitude. the daughter in the picture seems to be gazing through the window, as if dreaming of an elsewhere and pushing to break the frame. (i see the "remote" on the table before the TV -- a very matter-of-fact bit of decor that we might also read as a sad visual pun ....) i understand the trembling of your heart at this small and vast human drama!!
ReplyDeleteon another level, i am fascinated by the way you bring into proximity three glass portals through which we experience reality -- the window (the present, the here and now), the framed photograph (the past, desire), the television (the elsewhere, the imaginary, and the figure of the artist embedded in it)
(and also, of course, a secret fourth glass portal -- the lens of your camera that unites and records and opens a space for the trembling heart :-)
.
the three glass portals!!! the four, as you say... oh, you express everything so well, much better than i can... i can only humbly thanking you for articulating it so brilliantly (and, more important, so attuned to my inner truth).
DeleteThe first picture is very, very good. (You won't believe me but on seeing it I immediately zoomed on the TV screen and saw the scene from its eye's viewpoint, the eye in the reflection seeming to catch the viewer in the periphery of vision. Strange.). More shortly, Apple and google are still having difficulties so I'll write more and ask you to post it, if that's okay.
ReplyDeleteIs the camera a portal or a conduit? I think that's an important distinction (or is it?)
of course i believe you doing that, it is exactly the kind of thing you would do! (i think :-)
Deletei am still waiting for your longer comment, as you said, in case you have problems posting, just mail it and i will post it myself.
nu mi-a venit sa cred cand am vazut acolo portretul Stelei,si nici nu vei crede...m-am gandit mult la mama zilele astea asa cum o descrii tu aici-a fost frenetica in asteptarea mea,m-a asteptat cu tot ce putea imagina ca m-ar bucura,era singura si nestavilita in dorul ei,am avut impresia ca,orice as fi facut,nu m-as fi ridicat la asteptarea aceasta( si,oricum,s-a bucurat atat de putin timp de mine,am scris aproape continuu...dar simtem ca as fi murit daca nu o faceam,cu toata parerea de rau pentru locurile in care nu poti fi prezent).da,exact la asta si asa m-am gandit,la aceste intersectii,si inca la mai mult,la toate florile ei,toate funditele si acele incercari de a supravietui cumva.
ReplyDeletesunt frumoase amandoua,si tematice,spun o poveste atat de reala,si ,pentru mine,iti dai seama cat sunt de importante...nu m-as fi asteptat niciodata sa le gasesc asa,oh,niciodata.
eu voiam sa fac postarea asta cand ai postat tu acele perdele ale ei, si vaza aceea de plastic, si m-am emotionat, cum simtiseram amandoua ceva asemanator, in acelasi timp...
Deletemultumesc, draga mea, pentru ca ai facut toate aceste lumi posibile pentru mine.
Like the way you have explained it, and for you it means a lot.
ReplyDeleteMany a times when I photograph others, I find that I catch myself in some sort of reflection, and unless I point it out, no one notices.
thank you, Haddock, for your visit and for your words...
Deletei've been taken with this photograph since you posted it. (it has a new life again inside of me, like another reflection.) and while i only articulated it within myself (not having read any comments previously) i smile deeply at your explanation and then the exchange with james. it is the most intimate of photographs and ironically revealed through a reflection, which might be seen as distance, but i think here acts rather as voyeurism, an uninterrupted moment captured, and then again in a television screen which might seem impersonal but in the end here is anything but. it's a profound photograph which stands on its own with no explanation at all and i think speaks for many of us in this disparate and yet similar world.
ReplyDeletexo
erin