Visual Poem

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. It will probably be quite a while until the next one, too, since I'm going home where the bandwidth is...well...dial-up. I'll make up for it by giving you this visual poem: one day in my life, a photograph every half hour (approximately).

Take O Boatman, elaborated.

Thanks to my dad, I found the passage the phrase scrawled underneath that photograph comes from. Here it is:

Many a year is in its grave,
Since I crossed this restless wave;
And the evening, fair as ever,
Shines on ruin, rock and river.
Then in this same boat beside
Sat two comrades old and tried—
One with all a father's truth,
One with all the fire of youth.
One on earth in silence wrought,
And his grave in silence sought;
But the younger, brighter form
Passed in battle and in storm.
So, whene'er I turn my eye
Back upon the days gone by,
Saddening thoughts of friends come o'er me,
Friends that closed their course before me.
But what binds us, friend to friend,
But that soul with soul can blend?
Soul-like were those hours of yore;
Let us walk in soul once more.
Take, 0 boatman, thrice thy fee—
Take, I give it willingly ;
For, invisible to thee,
Spirits twain have crossed with me.
-Ludwig Uhland

I think It is beautiful.

"Take, O Boatman, thrice thy fee"

I began scanning in some old family albums today. The album is from the late 1800's, as far as I can tell. Each photograph has a pithy little quote under it, in the world's most exquisite script. The photographs found on their molding acidic pages are objects, at least to my eyes, of unspeakable beauty. This is a campaign for immortality; photographs this beautiful should not die.

Digital photography and photograph manipulation tools grant us a chance never before handed to photographers, that is, a chance for near immortality. Sure, data becomes corrupted, but properly backed up, information on a hard-drive will never fade, scratch, or get coffee spilled on it. As I scan in these faded, mildewed, scratched, gorgeous survivors, I feel like I'm saving an entire chunk of the past.

Way more of these to come.

Politics

Hillary Clinton Speaks at Clark University:
Clark University just hosted Deval Patrick to speak about Obama, and Hillary Clinton to speak about, well, herself. The Hillary event was packed, but I followed the nice lenses, and snuck right past the crowds to sit across a rope from US Rep Jim McGovern and his family. A secret service agent kept glaring me down, but I guess I managed to look respectable enough, because he didn't harass me. I viewed this as a chance to hone my skills. They aren't very good in indoor lighting, so I was proud of a few achievements. These are straight out of the camera because a. I like to look at my shots like that and critique my style, and b. hopefully it would discourage stealing. I like this picture, of Clinton, McGovern, and his daughter, Molly. She's such a little princess, check out the slipper. (To be fair I also have a picture of her picking her nose, when she thought no one was watching.) The Worcester city mayor brought his kid to the Obama rally. That's right politicians, show the kids off. Speaking of which, I even got to see Hillary Clinton hold a baby. She didn't kiss it though. She didn't kiss these people either.