Photographs Not Taken #1
My grandmother was standing by the kitchen window in my first apartment drinking coffee in the morning. My hanging houseplants framed her face perfectly. Her 87-year-old hands were shaky and worn out and beautiful. The light from the large window illuminated the crevices in her face. This is the only time she would attempt the 3 flights of stairs. It was early October in San Francisco, and she was sweating. Her white hair was starting to flatten, and her piercing blue eyes were looking out at Golden Gate Park. I wish I had documented this moment. Her age on her face and her hands that looked like my mom’s hands that look like my hands.
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Your description of your photograph not taken was very beautiful. A lot of the time I find my mother mentioning age as if it’s something to be ashamed of, something to be frightened about. My grandmother’s sister is 80 years old and my mother was sad when we visited her, seeing how “old” she looked, but all I could see were features of wisdom and gentleness and I too wanted to photograph or draw her. It was also nice that you described the background and the scene; it helped to portray a bit of her personality, creating a lovely portrait.
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Thanks for commenting and for your kind words, Maria. I agree that age and getting older is something worth photographing or drawing…documenting in some way, as it is so fleeting. I’ve always loved your photographs of (what I assume) is your Grandmother. So beautiful.
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You’re welcome and thank you for your kind words as well. I regret not commenting before (I’ve always been shy, though improving bit by bit) but I’ll try to make up for that here. Your photographs always capture a sort of air of mysterious sereneness which is more prominent, I think, in your black and white photographs. Your color photographs are beautiful also, you compose them very well and the color balance is fitted for the scene (the one with the woman with blue hair has a calm, but spirited feel to it because of its vibrancy, in comparison the one of the Santa Rosa fog has good color balance for the scene, slightly less saturated/vibrant, but you can still notice the warm tone of the building and the crosswalk leading us into the scene; I think that was a good choice to shoot that color of a building, a good contrast to the weather!). The photographs which are my favorites are the ones with the tattoo shadows, an experiment of light elegantly done, with the focus on the woman who’s identity is unclear. The high contrast in your photographs are just right, capturing that mysterious air, the lighting perfect in allowing us to see shadows of the sheets of the bed for example, portraying the mountain-like creases. I’m positive your photograph not taken would have captured that beautiful detail of your grandmother’s aging features, especially in black and white!
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