I spent the weekend in memory. Memory, as if it were a place. A passerby, had there been one, pausing long enough to peek into my bedroom would have seen me deep in a task. Surrounded by trays of slides, a scanner propped before me, laptop tethered, I loaded and scanned, loaded and scanned. The buzz of equipment musically augmented the scene. I was in the room and so very far away at the same time.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0pP6F0ec4Oq4kQNNJTKVaRT34an_uL4y9-nKZxqyWW6PDKVDu_aBmDuuzbVVpCGqs_6HsmN593hokdhMV0MKM714CQJPXURPrLMRWRpTQVSJHhpp5NlXvkGoRjR_m9NcRFAXg/s320/PW01A+-+Version+2+-+2008-06-13+at+20-13-28.jpg)
I am coming up on twenty years or twenty years are coming up on me. You pick. This mark of time prompted action, forced me to tick a chore off a list. Rent scanner. Scan slides. One weekend. Seven hours of immobility. Images and memories and colors and emotion.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKTb_n5zrb6JNOMBNSVd3ss2fC9FMNcoD7LZaUPOWVDkY80iUAXdAfgNcuAjsSYjFi39FsBfr5GpOMdPBSZ2aZwKdnUfQqzvjSUE8mBBeG-p2X4W8bjAR5Zx5NClN2zvqNeQ92/s320/PW022B+-+Version+2+-+2008-06-14+at+16-21-07.jpg)
1988. The Soviet Union. 500 participants. Multiple nationalities walking under the banner of Soviet-American Peace Walk. Odessa to Kiev with three capping days in Moscow. Tents and sleeping bags and bureaucracy and new friendships. Frustration and final tears. So much, so very much.
I pore through the images. The stories return. The need to capture knocking at my mind. This is just a beginning, a nod to maybe. How much will I present? How much will I revisit? I can’t say. I won’t say. I will show. Image by image. A start. A nudge. A beginning. We shall see…
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQsllTkWkzdqgzUyzsZt88isqeXbaMEIJMZbUBRMiVLWp4kJ15rDgpRFmk83sfBH6XwaS_TgswNYpDt5lWsGhqKLsWJj6rNRgVavkupU2kKTgU0jR8mINg6HCg2FbwiClcki6V/s320/PW55A+-+Version+2.jpg)
11 comments:
De, these memories, they must be seared deep inside.
"We shall see ..." Oh good. I very much want to see. 1988 ... 20 years ... Spots ... I am overwhelmed with the anniversaries we are marking. I love reading your elegant expression of what I am experiencing too.
Great photos! What kind of scanner did you get to do the slides? I've got a bunch of my mom's slides from her trip to France in '67 that I'd love to have access to.
Voix, I rented a Nikon 5000. Great quality scans, but I had to load one at a time, which was slow, slow, slow! There may be an adapter for stack loading, but I didn't have one. And I scanned at 4000 pixels, so have a lot of hard drive space available!
- deezee
100% honest day: What is your "other writing," and does it pertain to this post?
Dana,
No, but it should because I've sworn that I was going to write something before August, the 20th anniversary of this event. Who knows, maybe I can still pull it off?
The other writing...gulp. Long form fiction. Yep. The word that starts with n and ends with l. It scares me to somewhat publicly declare that. Now I must pull it off...
(and there are other little things here and there, fiction and short essays that are getting submitted. a few short photography-related pieces have been bought. if you want the links, email me...)
- deezee
I wantz de linkz. Send!
Thanks for the links. Now another question: Do you still like blogging?
Dana,
I have a complicated relationship with blogging right now. It's a very long answer, more likely to be posted on your site or as part of the next 100% honest day. (cuz the day has passed and I don't have to be all open and honest right now, not when I can close my eyes and take a little rest...)
- deezee
Love that photo of the little girls...
and how come you don't link to me?
Beautiful pictures, absolutely beautiful.
Post a Comment