The Flower that Once has Blown
For the vast majority of human existence, the only access the bereaved had to images of those they had lost were the hazy conjurings of memory. The invention of photography changed that. Its vivid clarifying reality can bring joy, but it can also bring a stab to the heart.
Normally I only upload photographs taken by myself. But I now look in vain for further such photos of my dear late wife.
I am both envious of and grateful to the unknown photographer who took this shot at my wife's retirement from her workplace, where she had been employed and loved for over thirty years. She had then lived 72 years, and was granted only eight more. This is close to my favourite image of her, pushing aside some of my own that I am proudest of. It almost does justice to her candid gentleness, intelligence, and beauty. My only contribution is to squeeze an impressionistic portrait out of a severe cropping of a much wider angle view (hence the softness, but that is not inappropriate).
The Flower that Once has Blown
For the vast majority of human existence, the only access the bereaved had to images of those they had lost were the hazy conjurings of memory. The invention of photography changed that. Its vivid clarifying reality can bring joy, but it can also bring a stab to the heart.
Normally I only upload photographs taken by myself. But I now look in vain for further such photos of my dear late wife.
I am both envious of and grateful to the unknown photographer who took this shot at my wife's retirement from her workplace, where she had been employed and loved for over thirty years. She had then lived 72 years, and was granted only eight more. This is close to my favourite image of her, pushing aside some of my own that I am proudest of. It almost does justice to her candid gentleness, intelligence, and beauty. My only contribution is to squeeze an impressionistic portrait out of a severe cropping of a much wider angle view (hence the softness, but that is not inappropriate).