Monday, August 18, 2014

Remembering Paris...

   Around this time two years ago, I was in France. I've been thinking about that trip and it began when I was in Dublin in early June.

  It was June 6th and the 70th anniversary of the invasion at Normandy and I watched the commemorations in the restaurant lounge.  All sorts of emotions welled up in me...memories too.

   My primary reason for making that trip to France in 2012 was to visit Omaha Beach where my dad landed 70 years ago and it is through objects as well as photographs that we re-connect with the past.  They both have ways to trigger powerful feelings.

   My cousin gave me this plate on my return but it was the tiny container of sand that I took home from Omaha Beach that is my most cherished souvenir of the trip.  That and this image I made at the memorial.

   I looked at the album I made of the trip, my "Good Crop" of 12 icons of the experience I had while in France.  I was still totally committed to the monochrome image back then and the 12 are all in black and white, well one image has just a spot of color...an omen of what was to come in my work?  I only made one black and white image while I was on my Threshold Pilgrimage in May and June, the rest were in color. Something has changed and I'm still processing it.

   Revisiting old images is a very revealing contemplative exercise and in my next post I will talk more about that.  For now, you can re-visit my "Good Crop" from France...



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