Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Conversations with my Mother...


Class of 1938
  This is a very personal project for me but I feel that there are immense contemplative possibilities in revisiting old family photographs and I want to share the idea with you.

   I grew up in an era where communication between children and their parents was not as free flowing as it is now.  In my house, this was even more exaggerated.  You simply didn't talk, about personal things, with Mom or Dad.

   How I wish that wasn't so but now I am using the old photographs of my Mother to have a conversation of sorts...a conversation I wish I had had but didn't.

   I'm altering the images and incorporating the "dialogue" into the photograph.  Questions I never dared ask...observations she probably wouldn't have been open to.  My Mother died in 2002, and though I won't receive answers to my questions, this project is helping me forge a new relationship, in some ways, with a woman I really can't say I 'knew' all that well.  That is a terribly sad thing to write but it is the truth.

   Is there someone from your past that you wish you could talk to now?  What would you ask them?  Consider having a conversation with the past as a way of clarifying long held feelings.  You may not be able to right old wrongs or resolve old differences but sometimes just writing it down can heal the soul.
  

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Good project. I had such a "conversation" with my grandfather years ago. It completely changed my relationship with him. Quite wonderful.

Patricia Turner said...

Very good idea, John. That is what I'm trying to do with my daily photo journal. I will have a book made at the end of the year and it will have all my thoughts as well as my photographs of things that meant something to me on that day. You can see it here:

http://www.blipfoto.com/Memories4Me

Patricia Turner said...

I must admit, Jimmy, that my eyes tear up while I'm working on the images. But in the end it will be a very cherished little book.

kimmanleyort said...

Boy, you have some interesting projects going on. This is such a worthy exercise, Patricia. I know it will be meaningful and I have a feeling she's hearing you too.

Patricia Turner said...

You know, I think you're right. After I do one, I always feel a bit of calm come over me even as I am teary eyed doing it. Perhaps she is hearing me.