.
.
.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Children's Corner . . .
Over at Laurie's fascinating blog "Creating Pictures In My Mind" on Sunday, 24 May, he posted several photos of graves where children had been buried. In a Parisian cemetery several years ago I made this image of the children's corner where infants had been interred. It is hard to imagine the high levels of infant mortality that existed in countries like France or England or America until even fairly recently. When I see scenes like this, I feel lucky just to be here, each and every day, and especially lucky to have good people like you, (yes, you !) out there reading these words and pondering over these pictures. . . you make it all worthwhile. Yes indeed, an image like this reminds me of what a lottery life can be ; not all tickets are winners.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Labels:
Cemeteries
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
8 comments:
Very touching. Black and white gives even more power to the picture and idea....
By the way, a very good friend, Mmrs Saturnin on my blog just fleuw back from Brazil one day before back to France....so I felt very bad when I heard the news, she was supposed to return that very weekend.... Luckily she was safe and we are all relieved...
Still some people, lots of people, too many people we reckon passed away during that AF flight... One minute of silence for them all.
Take care Owen
Loulou
This photo is very touching..
It doesnt look like there's name or dates on the graves...nameless graves..
My wish is to visit France..maybe live there for a while..it's the most interesting place Ive heard and read of
keep rolling Owen!!
:D esi
How dreadfully sad.
The graves are all the same. Were you able to ascertain any dates? Were they all the result of some specific epidemic?
My father used family letters to write a book about his ancestors in the 19th century. Deaths in infancy were still a fairly common occurence in those days, even in the upper bourgeoisie who had better access to medical care than most.
Imagine the pain of losing one of your children...
So small and alone.
Very sad.
I am shocked by the anonymity of those who lay there . . .
Black and white photography can be so intense when done well... Like this.. I am deeply saddened by this picture, it actually depresses me...
Loulou, yes, totally tragic and senseless, glad your friend is OK ! One minute we can be fine wherever we are, and the next minute... the curtain falls and the show is over. One minute of silence it is.
Desi, they were nameless. There was a sign that gave a littel more info, but I took this photo back around 1993, and I honestly don't remember what it said, and didn't have a digital camera back then, or I would have done a photo of the sign too. Thank you, and hope you can make it to France if that is a dream you are dreaming... that's what happened to me, so it is possible for dreams like that to come true.
Nathalie, wouldn't even want to begin to imagine. I guess as parents we all do imagine at some point or another. My daughter came close with a terrible case of appendicitis that was not properly diagnosed at first, I spend ten days in the hospital with her last year... no fun at all.
Sagit, very small and very lonely place, the cheap concrete rectangular markers just kill me.
Laurie, a shocking place indeed, nameless, anonymous babes, who had no chance to even take their first steps in life.
Watercats, if a photo evokes powerful feelings in one sense or another, I suppose it succeeds then as art... it was not an easy photo to take, but out of respect for these lost and forgotten infants, I wanted to remember them... and for me, somehow reaching into the depths of despair at times helps me rebound back toward the pure joy of living... I'll be happy to get you a beer or whatever the next time you're in Paris to help get over any lingering trace of depression caused by this... Or maybe I'll have to come to Ireland... but then, I heard they have no beer in Ireland...is that true ???
For some children,the abused, the poor, the starving ones to stop existing must be the most mercifull of all balsams. Make me think that childhood innocence is no longer (or never was) an effective safe conduct against cruelty in this world.
Post a Comment