It’s the third anniversary of my Aunt Gail’s death. Even atheist Jews tend to light the memorial candle.
www.flickr.com/photos/brachiator/3101621277/
“Strange now to think of you, gone without corsets & eyes, while I walk on the sunny pavement of Greenwich Village.” – Allen Ginsberg, “Kaddish for Naomi Ginsberg”
Time does not bring relief; you all have lied
Who told me time would ease me of my pain!
I miss him in the weeping of the rain;
I want him at the shrinking of the tide;
The old snows melt from every mountain-side,
And last year’s leaves are smoke in every lane;
But last year’s bitter loving must remain
Heaped on my heart, and my old thoughts abide
There are a hundred places where I fear
To go,—so with his memory they brim
And entering with relief some quiet place
Where never fell his foot or shone his face
I say, "There is no memory of him here!"
And so stand stricken, so remembering him!
– Edna St. Vincent Millay
The anthropologist and photographer Lye Tuck-Po recently posted an essay discussing why she exhibits so many photos of the children of the Batek people of Malaysia, and so few of Batek adults. It’s a touching exploration of loss, frailty, memory and the problematic nature of photography and publicity in traditional culture: "When They Die Young." Her essay set my mood for processing and captioning this image. I think the poem above gets at some of the emotion involved.
A shot from late-afternoon while on the Santa Monica Pier for the photowalk with Miss Aniela and Jeff Greene of Microsoft’s Professional Photo division.
