View allAll Photos Tagged difficulty
The difficulties you meet will resolve themselves as you advance. Proceed, and light will dawn, and shine with increasing clearness on your path.
Jim Rohn
Thank you all so much for the very generous comments on my last post...I really appreciated your words ...
So the next time you have difficulty determining whether a canine print is a wolf or a dog, to make matters worse, look how the black wolf's paw is splayed when it's active. In this case, I believe this was either a minor squabble over the boon (bull elk kill) or just high spirits with stomachs full. It didn't last long and in a moment they took off together to try to snatch a raven or two out of the air.
As an aside, the white wolf with the black spot on her tail, facing the camera, is the alpha female of the Wapiti Lake pack, Yellowstone National Park. Photo taken a little less than a week ago in -18° F weather.
This is a major crop, taken from a distance such that the wolves were not disturbed by the presence of photographers. There was no indication that if they even noticed us if they cared at all. They knew full well we weren't going to come take the elk away from them.
I don't usually post pics of myself but it's Christmas Eve tomorrow and I'm done working till New Year! Seems like the perfect excuse to wear a celebratory stuffed turkey on my head. (Not that I even needed an excuse really.) Bummer is, I fell last night and it seems I have a hairline fracture in my right elbow and can hardly move it so sadly I won't be able to take photos nor post any, nor will I be able to comment or reply to comments, so this is your "we are experiencing technical difficulties" picture while I'm somewhat out of commission :-( But I wish all of you the most wonderful Christmas - or however you might choose to call the holidays - and thank you dearly for another year of your amazing inspiration and generous support.
Hugs, Tinsel and Quality Street, Katrina x
(Oh how strange, I see this photo is somehow from the future - it has a date of Jan. 15, 2018! Who knew photos could come from the future? Not sure how that happened when it was actually taken at our company Christmas Party last weekend. Parallel universe?)
THE DIFFICULTY OF SHARING THE SAME TOOTHBRUSH / FINAL / CHRISTELLE GEISER & AEON VON ZARK / NAKED EYE PROJECT BIENNE / ALTERED STATE SERIE / THE WEIRD DREAM .
I am truly delighted to be a transvestite despite some of the difficulties and angst that inevitably come with being a man that enjoys spending time as a woman. I do think it an amazing experience to enjoy time as the opposite gender, it holds great appeal for me and I always enjoy myself.
I do love the commitment and physical preparation one has to engage with to try and look female and I really enjoy getting into the persona and acting the part. It is illusionary, a form of impersonation and performance yet part of me feels so right presenting as a woman. I often joke that despite being a boy I was born to wear a dress; there is I feel a girl within me I like to set free now and again.
I increasingly I find my ambitions as a transvestite growing within me though I rarely get an opportunity to try and fulfil them. Such is the reality of life and ensuring I remain grounded and maintain my commitment to my wife, family and work and not get too carried away with my passionate desire to spend time as a woman.
This is a self portrait I took a few years ago during one of my cross-dressing sessions and seeing it again today has rather filled with me with joy and comfort and a fair degree of excitement simply recalling how thrilled I was to dress up and pose in female clothing and make-up. I do genuinely love to call myself a transvestite as it is such a taboo in our society yet as a man it is a true thrill and adventure to go through with it. I also want to do it on a deeper level a well as I would have liked to have been a girl though I now realise not strongly enough to go for a full transition. I enjoy the whole illusion as well as the emotional need. I am aware many who cross-dress despise the word but it is a word that saved me as a teenager and gave me hope and a sense of not being alone. I embraced it and knowing I am one fills me with happiness.
I do feel it is the rarity of my cross-dressing that provides such a big rewarding experience when I do go through with it. I thrive on the anticipation and the euphoria afterwards can last for months. This rare high is one that is well worth waiting for. It is great to walk around with shaved legs, skirt, have breasts and be wearing make-up and a wig, even the dressing up side is appealing. It is a cocktail of various elements that makes transvestism such a delightful and truly exhilarating experience. I love it!
In the early 1800's, many thoughtful Americans believed that isolation and the difficulties of communication would force the Mississippi Valley settlements to form a separate nation. Hoping to hold the frontier, Congress, in 1800, established a post route from Nashville (TN) to Natchez (MS). The Trace, then a series of Indian Trails, had drawn from the Secretary of State the bitter comment, "The passage of mail from Natchez is as tedious as from Europe when westerly winds prevail." To speed the mail, President Jefferson ordered the army to clear out the trail and make it a road. Postriders, carrying letters, dispatches, and newspaper helped bind the vast turbulent frontier to the republic. However, their day passed by the mid-1830's when steamboats, running from New Orleans to Pittsburg, robbed the Trace of its usefulness as a main post route.
The markers shown above read:
This early interstate road building venture produced a snake-infested, mosquito-beset, robber-haunted, Indian-traveled forest path. Lamented by the pious, cussed by the impious, it tried everyone’s strength and patience.
When the trail became so water logged that wagons could not be pulled through, travelers cut new paths through the nearby woods.
Here you see three cuts made to avoid mud into which oxcarts and wagons sank, making progress slow, dangerous, or even impossible.
Preserved here is a portion of the deeply eroded or “sunken” Old Trace. Hardships of journeying on the Old Trace included heat, mosquitoes, poor food, hard beds (if any), disease, swollen rivers, and sucking swamps.
Take 5 minutes to walk this sunken trail and let your imagination carry you back to the early 1800's when people walking 500 miles had to put up with these discomforts and where a broken leg or arm could spell death for the lone traveler.
Both of the markers above were placed by the United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service
Three bracketed photos were taken with a handheld Nikon D7200 and combined with Photomatix Pro to create this HDR image. Additional adjustments were made in Photoshop CS6 including the combination of all 3 photos into one image seen above.
"For I know the plans I have for you", declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." ~Jeremiah 29:11
The best way to view my photostream is through Flickriver with the following link: www.flickriver.com/photos/photojourney57/
Location: Coruscant Underworld, Night Life District
Objective: Delivery of supplies.
Difficulty: Well, it should have been easy.
—LOG ENTRY—
After dodging Admiral Jud’s hunters, I escaped the cold atmosphere of Orto Plutonia and headed to meet my old friend Jahk Duran. I guess after our split he found a group called The Survivors to take refuge with. He told me of their fearless leader Zach, as well as their missions on Tatooine and Zeffo. More recently though has been the outbreak of riots all throughout Coruscant. Since they’ve started to die down he’s been tasked with bringing in supplies and rebuilding the city. I’ve gotta say being away from the action has gotten to me; I miss it, but I’m glad to get back to it.
Entering the Coruscant sky gave me a real idea of what we were up against. Scattered spots of destruction and fire as far as I could see. Im not sure what the riots didn’t touch. I was given coordinates to Coruscant’s Fine Arts District, which is located next to the Night Life district. Cant land there because to my understanding the place is crawling with Imps which makes it a real hot zone. Soon after touching ground in the arts district I met up with Jehk, I felt overwhelmed after not seeing him for so long. We talked shortly on whats been keeping us busy and the such, but with short time we had to get situated with The Survivors and make it over to the Night Life District to start moving supplies.
—END LOG—
“Cray get a move on brother we got quite the walk ahead of us, we have to meet up with group leader.”
“Whats exactly our plan here Jehk?”
“We need to rebuild this city in the end and get rid of the remaining Imperial scum that crawls the underworld. There shouldnt be too many Imps left but watch yourself. Plus you were telling me about that Admiral Jud and his plot to defeat you. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of his men. Just stay on your toes, watch for anything out of the ordinary, and stick with the group... if you do that you’ll be fine.”
The two men made there way into a large hub, there meeting Jehk’s group leader Clern Ido. (Pronounced: Slern I-Dough)
“I take it you’re the Cray I’ve been hearing rumors about?”
“Yes sir, that would be me, at your command!”
“Well rest easy, we are pretty easy going around here, but when its time to get the jobs done we do it! And thats what will happen concerning these supplies.”
Clern turns to address the group.
“Hey!! We will be moving in small groups. Taking a few crates each to 6 locations. My group will be Jehk and our new blood Cray Schaf, need to see what this mans made of. As for the rest of you keep your same groups as we had for controlling the riots. Watch your back for Imperial Scouts or just some lowlife thugs looking to ruin your day. You have valuable items here. A lot of people want this stuff but we have a job to do... so lets get to it. Each of your crates should already have the destinations locked in, all you gotta do is escort it.”
The group scurries to get their cargo and move out. In the midst of the chaos Cray finds himself looking up into the vast city planet of Coruscant. There spotting an old Imperial astro mech droid moving across a walkway... Cray lets Jehk know but he assures him there aren’t any Imps in the immediate area.
Cray moves over to the crates and checks the destinations. Theres a nightclub by the name “Clúb Ice” located in the heart of the Nightlife District.
“Lucky us”
He turns on the hover mode and punches the destination into the AGS. Now? Well all they gotta do now is make sure the supplies get there. Shouldn’t be too much of a problem, right?
“Its awfully quite around here” Jehks uneasy voice is sure a cause for concern. For having riots not to long ago the roads are extremely calm. Only the occasional bit of rubble or dumpster fire. Moving deeper into the heart of the district the men started spotting people on binoculars looking down at their convoy, talking through communication holograms or to each other about the goods the men were traveling with.
After a cautious stroll they make it to the club, typing in the codes to drop the crates and then getting an update through high command that the people picking up the supplies were running a tad late and now they are going to have to sit with the supplies until they arrived.
“Well thats just great!” Exclaims Clern. Clearly not his first time dealing with this type of situation. The men take watch. Each glaring a different direction... it’s almost nothing for 20 minutes. The men are starting to become uneasy.
“Can anyone hear that” Clern asks. The sound of metal clanking sends shivers down the spines of both Cray and Jehk.
“Well whatever it is its getting closer, who’s picking up these supplies anyways??” Cray questions as he holds his gun in the direction of the metal clanking.
“Ha, you act like we are supposed to know, they just gave us this mission, with the location. They don’t tell us anything else.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me” Cray is in disbelief, but theirs no time to sit and ponder, whatever is making noise is right around the corner. He gets ready.
What rounds the corner stuns all the men.
“An Imp Medical droid? I haven’t seen one of those in ages!” Cray sets his weapon down. He asks the droid what its doing here.
“Just going for a walk”
And no later as it says that a scout trooper and Imperial Bounty hunter make their way out of the Nightclub’s balcony accompanied by the astro mech droid Cray saw earlier. He takes out his staff and makes quick work of the medical droid while Clern and Jehk take care of the enemies on the roof. With one of Jehks shots sending the astromech’s head flying.
With the supplies still secured the men end up waiting another 2 hours before anyone arrives. It was a quick and quiet transaction. Tired from the day and ready to head back the men make their way to get some rest because this is just one of 5 supply running missions. And they can be sure to see many more foes along the way.
I have great difficulty composing images for Iron Photographer challenges. Take, for example, the elements of challenge 205:
1 - three similar things
2 - a thing not like the others
3 - shot from ground/floor level
The framing of the challenge has me fixated on things: Thing 1 and Thing 2 (from Dr. Seuss), Thing from the Addams family, Ben Grimm (Thing from the Fantastic Four) and so on. I usually start by looking for the elements in my environment.
Second attempt
Here I reinterpret the first image and crop out the traffic control cones. Emphasizing the three houses and the person running towards them made it better but the image is now undermined by the traffic control elements that initially drew my interest. Not to mention those pesky power lines.
We had little difficulty to find time for each other but when Alice come to the shoot she had those wonderful hair blue and purple i was very excited to work on , wonder if i could keep the magic and the light , I had so much fun working on her portrait , so much out of my comfort zone . so light tan and special subtitle and strong makeup. si i did push on the softness feeling I had.
if you dont know she is, model, wonderful photographer her self, designer doing those special flowers accessory you see around , events maker, fashion blogger , she publish also Inovar magazine and I am sure I forget things =)
April 23, 2015 on our trip to the blipmeet at Wanaka, Central Otago in New Zealand. www.polaroidblipfoto.com/browse/me
Our first morning in Cromwell. We woke to heavy fog which took a while to lift. We have arrived at Mt Difficulty Estate Winery so John can do some tasting.
The unique microclimate of the Bannockburn area is partially created by the presence of Mount Difficulty which overlooks the southern Cromwell basin, and is the namesake of Mt Difficulty Wines. Mount Difficulty is integral in providing low rainfall and humidity for the region. Bannockburn enjoys hot summers, a large diurnal temperature variation and long cool autumns; conditions which bring the best out of the Pinot Noir grapes. These conditions, along with soils which are ideal for viticulture, provide an excellent basis not only for Pinot Noir, but also for Pinot Gris, Riesling, and Chardonnay. The soils are a mix of clay and gravels, but all feature a high pH level; grapes produce their best wines on sweet soils.
For More Info and photos: www.mtdifficulty.co.nz/aboutus/ourstory.html
“Simplicity and difficulty are twin sisters” said famous Japanese … no no nobody said this, I made it up, what I am saying is these ocean rocks are slippery bastards, the guys who balance river rocks are having it so so easy, river rocks are funky, irregular , they have grip …. Ocean rocks are egg shaped and have no grip, to balance a straight stack of them is like balancing .. well stack of eggs, go on try it, eggs I mean, let me know how it went. Anyway, it took a few collapses and trying various things before some agreeable shape been achieved and agreed to stay. When finished I went back to our shady spot under the tree to get my camera and I saw a kid walking along the beach approaching the thing. That was the ultimate test of how zen I am. Do I run back and shoo the kid away? Do I leave the thing in the hands of fate ? Well, I am very very zen I appears. I have left it to fate and the kid passed the thing without knocking it down. Would I get upset if he did? No, because I am very very zen you see.
Something zen to play me out;
For those who are having difficulty finding them at Colony Farm Park in Coquitlam. Make yourself familiar with the males call. It is available online and in birding apps. It is a little bird and even though it is brightly colored you may have trouble spotting it by visuals alone.
Do not play the call for them. The males do not respond to it and you just annoy other seekers!
Check near the first parking lot off Lougheed, CAREFULLY along the rail line
and the road going into the park. The field northwest of the hospital is a frequent hangout for them. Right now I have heard them in the big trees and then you have to look very carefully.
Or you can be lucky like me and find it as I walked along a trail heard the song, tip toed past some nettles and blackberry vines and it was perched in a bush!
Good luck
My first post in some time. I will admit to having some difficulty finding personal inspiration amid the current chaos.
This is a repost of a photoshop project I did a few years ago. A digital manipulation of a vintage WWI photo of a brigade of soldiers from Brown County, Wisconsin USA. My maternal grandfather (William) is seated front row, one o'clock (I have tagged him with a yellow dot). The original photo was taken at Camp Zachary Taylor in Louisville, KY USA. The map is from a vintage US Government book on the war showing the world battlefronts in the year 1918 (I sphereized it in PS to make it look like a globe).
My reasons for this repost are two-fold:
1) to take advantage of the more recent upload size - zoom in to see the faces. The photographer did a great job with the original photo.
2) ALSO going on in the world at the time was the LAST pandemic - the "Spanish Flu". As it happened, my grandfather entered late in the war. He contracted the flu while at Camp Taylor. As such he did not travel overseas with his unit. By the time he was well, the war was over. Had he traveled with his unit, he may not have come back. THUS, I may owe my existence to the flu pandemic of 1918-19.
Another interesting bit about the photo - I shared it with the local historical society. In doing so, I came to find that the uncle of a friend/neighbor is seated to the immediate right of my grandfather. An incredible coincidence. My friend and I have shared many laughs about that and hope that they were friends too.
They got through their trials and I guess we will too, one way or another.
Stay safe out their Flickrinos and keep posting your insprirational photos. I know I need them right now.
"There is no difficulty that enough love will not conquer.
No disease that enough love will not heal.
No door that enough love will not open.
No wall that enough love will not bring down ...
No matter how deeply embedded it is the problem,
nor hopeless it seems.
No matter how tangled the web that is,
nor is the huge error.
understanding of love, dissolve it all.
Bibiana Aysha
"No hay dificultad que suficiente amor no venza.
No hay enfermedad que suficiente amor no cure.
No hay puerta que suficiente amor no abra.
No hay muro que suficiente amor no derribe...
No importa lo profundamente asentado que esté el problema,
ni lo desesperanzador que parezca.
No importa lo enredada que esté la maraña,
ni lo enorme que sea el error.
la comprensión del amor, lo disolverá todo.
I captured this Bumblebee at the Botanical Gardens in Anchorage. I love these bumblebees for their colors but I'm having difficulty identifying a specific species, so if anybody out there knows, please let me know. Thanks!
Taken 17 July 2018 at Botanical Garden, Anchorage, Alaska.
Knowing firsthand the difficulty that lesser known artists have in finding a venue to display their work, Marion reopened the Little Gallery to visiting artists after her husband’s death. Today the DeGrazia Foundation continues this legacy during the winter months. We are happy to announce our 2017/2018 Little Gallery application is now online until February 28th! All applications must be filled out and submitted to the gallery by March 31st. Good luck! Please click on the link for more information degrazia.org/exhibitions/little-gallery/.
The Pineapple Fountain at Charleston's Waterfront Park
Charleston County, Lowcountry South Carolina
Accessed via East Bay & Vendue Range
Date taken: March 17, 2013
The pineapple in symbology has often been suggested as synonymous with hospitality. It is written that historically because of the rare nature of these fruits being found only in the West Indies and the myriad difficulties in preserving them during the ship ride back to the Americas, that their value was quite high. There is also writing that suggests that their sweet and powerful taste was a delicacy of sorts in a time without the indulgances that we enjoy so easily today. Taking their value and rare nature into account, the pineapple was said to often grace the centerpiece of affluent tables during parties, and at certain times would often even be rented as a symbol of hospitality for a party, only to be returned the same evening to another party which would likely core and enjoy the fruit.
However, Mary Miley Theobald writes in her book, Death by Petticoat: American History Myths Debunked, that the pineapple was certainly never a symbol of hospitality and was likely mistaken in early artwork for the pinecone. In fact, she goes on to state that the English named the pine-apple after the more familiar pine-cone due to its aesthetic similarities. In classical symbology the pinecone has represented fertility and regeneration, which Theobald believes was the likely meaning that the English emulated when carving pinecone/pineapple shapes in headboards, friezes and fireplace surrounds. She ends a blogpost on the pineapple symbology here in America by saying that there is absolutely no historical precedence for the pineapple symbolizing hospitality during its time, saying that "the pineapple myth simply refuses to die an honorable death."
To the award winning landscape architects who designed Charleston's Waterfront Park...oops! Oh well, it's still pretty neat! And certainly unique in its own right--so what if the myth might be, well, just that ;-) To those who believe that the world is but a social construction of our minds, chalk yourselves up a small victory here. And to the rest of us, well, let's just enjoy a really nice waterfront park and fountain in a very scenic and special southern city.
Difficulties Reveal Hardy Holiness
Matthew 4:1–11; 1 Corinthians 10:12–13; Hebrews 12:11
True holiness does not make a Christian evade difficulties, but face and overcome them. Christ would have His people show that His grace is not a mere hothouse plant, which can only thrive under shelter, but a strong hardy thing which can flourish in every relation of life.
Elliot Ritzema and Elizabeth Vince, eds., 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Modern Church (Pastorum Series; Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2013).
It's the struggle to concentrate. Forgetfulness. Difficulty to solve problems. You lose track of conversations. Tasks that are simple can be difficult. Things you knew by heart get lost. It's like when making a simple old recipe I have to remind myself of each step, reading over and over again every line until it's done. I started experiencing Brain Fog sometime after my diagnosis. The signs were subtle and it took a while to realize that something had changed. Following directions, confusion to understand what I'm reading, forgetfulness, getting lost in the middle of conversations are part of my struggle. There are several moments I find myself in a conversation and suddenly my mind drags me to another place. My body is there. There's eye contact, but my mind is not there. The connection between me and the other person is slow. Sometimes it makes me feel embarrassed to ask people what we were talking about. Somehow I was present, but not present. It's like the mind is full of infinite boxes, one inside the other. The strangeness of this disease made me question myself about anything and everything in silence.
Difficulty 10/10.
The wasps are constantly moving, never rest. The only moment to catch him this close is when he is a bit "drunk" because of the flower juices, so he moves a little bit slower than usually.
To make converts, we are tempted to play down the difficulties and play up the peace of mind and worldly success enjoyed by those who accept Christ. We will never be completely honest with our hearers until we tell them the blunt truth that, as members of a race of moral rebels, they are in a serious jam, and one they will not get out of easily. If they refuse to repent and believe on Christ, they will most surely perish. If they do turn to Him, the same enemies that crucified Him will try to crucify them. (A W Tozer)
The Windows
Length: 1 mile round trip
Difficulty: Easy
Description: Also known as the Spectacles, these two arches stand side by side, though separated by some distance, cut from the same sandstone fin. A large “nose†separates the Spectacle arches visually from the southwest, made of a gigantic fin remnant over 100 feet wide. Directly southwest of the Windows sits Turret Arch with its vigilant tower standing beside. The whole Windows area is full of unique and captivating stone formations, with many arches among them.
To get there, drive 9.2 miles up the Arches Entrance Road, and then take the first right after Balanced Rock into the Windows section of the park. You will follow this road 2.7 miles to its end at a circle for the Windows Trail. This is a leisurely trail, and visitors can easily extend their visit to include Double Arch, the Parade of Elephants, and the other features of the Windows area of the park should they have the time and the desire.
The Windows Trailhead
There is ample parking here for the many visitors that frequent the Windows section of the park.
Turret Arch
The fin that Turret Arch is carving away is over 100 feet wide, but the arch itself is relatively young and small. There is a secondary, smaller arch directly to the right of the main arch, and maybe within a few hundred thousand years or so the two of them will join to create a larger arch.
The Windows
The two Spectacles are formed of the same sandstone fin, one of the farthest reaches of the collection that sits below Elephant Butte.
Double Arch
Double Arch takes its name because of it consists of two arches that share the same stone as a foundation for both of their outer legs. Double Arch was formed by downward water erosion from atop the sandstone, rather than from side-to-side water erosion.
The Parade of Elephants
To the south of Double Arch lies a lone section of sandstone, the remnants of the fin to which Double Arch used to belong. The rock formation appears to be a herd of elephants, holding each others’ tails, traveling single file. The formation consists of a few small arches within the elephants’ ranks that seem to give the impression that they were actually carved to appear as the pachyderms.
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A free Spirit
Mirit Ben-Nun was born in Beer- Sheva in 1966. Over the years she has presented in solo exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions in Israel and around the world.
When she was six, her father was killed in a car accident, leaving behind his wife and two daughters, Mirit and Dana.
Ben-Nun had difficulty concentrating on studies, which caused behavioral problems, and at the age of fourteen she dropped out of the education system and went to work. The colors and writing tools gave her a quiet private space and her own way of surviving. Creativity eased her tumultuous soul.
Until her early 30’s she worked as a telemarketer and for the next fourteen years she doodled and doodled. While talking to customers she filled thousands of pages with lines and dots that resembled hundreds of compressed eggs and seeds which she threw away.
In a large portion of each page she would pick a random word and would write it down over and over while concentrating on her hand movements.
Even then she noticed the rising of her need and obsession as she practiced the endless doodling and writing.
Ben-Nun testifies that the lack of artistic training to paint "correctly" freed her from adhering to the rules of painting and allowed her freedom and spirit of rebellion.
In 1998, she received a bunch of canvases and acrylic paints as a gift from her sister.
She brought the acrylic into her world of lines and dots; she went back to painting women and masks that appeared in her childhood paintings and flooded them with lines and dots without separating body and background.
This is also the moment when Ben-Nun began to refer to herself as a painter.
and when art became the center of her life.
The intense colors in Ben-Nun's paintings sweep the viewer into a sensual experience. The viewer traces the surge of dots and lines formed in packed layers of paint. The movement leads to a kind of female-male hormonal dance within the human body and to a communion with an artistic experience of instinct, passion, conceiving and birth.
Contributing to this experience is the wealth of characteristics reminiscent of tribal art. Ben-Nun merges these with a humorous and kicking contemporary Western Pop art. In the language of unique art, Ben-Nun creates an unconventional conversation between past and present cultures.
It is evident that the paintings emerge from a regenerated need and desire, a force that erupts from her soul, a subconscious survival instinct to which she cannot or does not want to resist.
Ben-Nun places women at the center stage where they are her work focus. The paintings obsessively deal with the existential experience of being a woman in the world. A few of the women's paintings carry feminist slogans stressing the women's struggle in society, a critique for being held to perfection and being required to perform as a model of "beauty, purity and motherhood". Feminism pulsates in Ben-Nun's psyche, through her diverse female images and the play between beauty and unsightliness; Ben-Nun assimilates the consciousness of feminine possibility, of not being "perfect", of being powerful, influential, and outside social norms. This mandates a departure from acceptable limitations where Ben-Nun creates a new world of free spirit for women.
Mirit Ben-Nun is a mother of three and the grandmother of three grandchildren.
Mirela Tal
These are the baseboards from upstairs, which are laying downstairs in the living room waiting to be put back where they belong. Unfortunately, my house repairs (from the ice dam water damage that happened right before Christmas) have turned into an utter nightmare. From an insurance perspective, neither the Association insurance nor my personal homeowner insurance wants to pay for anything and until somebody does, the repairs are on hold. I'm trying to remain optimistic but my patience is waning. I'm afraid this may turn into a legal battle, which I really don't want to deal with.
Just thought I would provide an update since so many of you have sent me notes with well wishes and inquiries as to how things are coming. I really do appreciate your kindness. :-)
© All rights reserved.
unstable : (Adj) 1. not firmly fixed and likely to wobble or fall
2. likely to change suddenly and create difficulties or danger
3. (of a person) having abrupt changes of mood or behaviour
No this isn't a photoshop trick, and (#$^%&) my foot hurts from standing like this. Consider that my rant for the day.
(unless you have prior proof I've already ranted. In that case...Shhhhhh.)
I have been tagged yet again for 16 things, so anyone who isn’t intrigued by useless babble might find it pertinent to move along now…………
Once I started it all just flowed out...therapeutically perhaps?
No obligation to read whatsoever. It's just there.
Consider yourself warned. :)
I will never do it again.
Goodnight.
****************
1. I am an avid bookworm. I am currently reading 3 books at the same time. I don’t know how I separate them in my head, but it’s not nearly as hard as you would imagine.
2. I despise my 365 because I feel that 99% of the time I rush through it and post absolute rubbish simply to achieve the “one-a-day” rule. I have literally only posted a handful of pictures (handful being 5-8) that I am actually proud of. The rest of them, I could really care less about and would disown them if my name wasn’t so blatantly attached to them.
3. I am ridiculously self-conscious. It actually makes me uncomfortable when people tell me I’m beautiful because my initial response is to believe that they are lying to me. I never have, and never will, truly think that I am pretty. I am and always will, however, be content being who I am.
4. I am perfectly satisfied being unsocial and alone. (a byproduct of my self consciousness?) I would take a good book, a cup of coffee and a blanket over a night out on the town any day. I like myself, and I prefer company I trust.
5. One of my biggest irritations is when people underestimate me for my age or appearance. I can change a tire in less than ten minutes and I can drink a full grown man under the table. I am a customer service manager of an entire office and I can play Mozart’s ‘Rhondo Alla Turca’ from beginning to end without looking at sheet music. Neither my face nor age defines any of these things, the rest of my character withstanding.
6. I want to be a mother more than anything in this entire world, and I am not the least bit frightened or apprehensive about it. I just simply feel that my life is incomplete, and it always will until my husband and I have a family that is solely ours.
7. I cannot tolerate immaturity or mistrust. I very recently had an incident that involved being backstabbed and slandered, and consequently lied to. I have firmly resolved to disown these people in the highest level comfortable based upon our relationships. I am a forgiving person, but I refuse to allow myself to be a victim. I also have no desire to be associated with people who constantly make themselves the victim.
8. If I could go back in time, I would do everything differently. I know it isn’t traditionally inspiring for someone to say that, but in my case, I regrettably blundered through a good 3 years of my life in a way that I am forever scarred for how I harmed myself and damaged others.
I would unhesitatingly accept a chance to try it all again.
9. I have numerous acquaintances whom I know well and who know me half as well. The amount of people in this world that I sincerely call friends is only three. (my sister, my husband, and one friend.) It is not that I do not have frequent opportunities to enter into friendships, but I rarely trust people enough to open up to them, nor do I wish to waste my time trying only to be sorely disappointed.
10. I adjust myself based upon the company I keep and the situation I am in. Likewise, I rarely utilize my full vocabulary on Flickr. It is not that I believe anyone is improperly educated and would be confused. It is because when I am on Flickr I am just simply me and there is no reason to appear to be pretentiously showing off by tossing out five-syllable words unnecessarily. I also rarely reveal anything in my facts. Today I am.
11. I spent many years despising my childhood and using it as a scapegoat for the things I had done detrimentally wrong. Now, as I’ve finally matured I realize that any and all somewhat traumatizing instances from my childhood did not in any way disrupt my development but rather strengthened and prepared me to become the person I am today. For which I am thankful.
12. I hate change. It throws me into a chaotic state of discomfort when I am compelled to attempt things that are unfamiliar or unknown to me. For as long as I can consciously remember, I have had anxiety issues when I feel out of place or exposed. Therefore, I often force myself into such situations in attempt to widen my comfort bubble…..I have been doing it for years.
13. I am violently opposed to dependency. I am of the firm opinion that after a certain point in your life you need to learn to rely upon yourself alone to handle your existence, finances, and emotions. I am not referring to the desire to have someone in your life (obviously). I am more specifically determined that one should not ‘need’ anyone else to survive in the world.
14. I abhor my own contradictions. As much as I hate dependency, I am admittedly a mess without caffeine or nicotine. I vow to rectify it, but somehow the first step evades me. I will do it eventually.
15. Rather than being a person who knows a lot about a small amount of things, I know a small amount about a lot of things. I’ve rather disliked this over the years and wished that I had a better depth into certain subjects. Simultaneously, there have been numerous times in which my brief understanding or knowledge of a range of subjects has been incredibly useful. I’m indeterminate.
16. There are a great many crevices and cracks to my personality that I seldom reveal. It’s not that I’m embarrassed or reluctant to be myself, I simply attribute it to my private nature. I dislike revealing things that make me appear to be pretentious or proud, and most everything else is typically unnecessary information for anyone to associate with me. For example; saying that I completed Calculus my Sophomore year in high school merely makes me sound arrogant, and the fact that I can fold my tongue in half towards the back of my throat is simply worthless information.
Point proven.
What a mess Flickr was the night before last! I had difficulty adding titles to my uploaded images, comments didn't save and, after I had added a description to each of the 20 photos, the descriptions all disappeared. When I opened Flickr next morning, there was still no sign of them. Then, suddenly, they re-appeared. I also discovered that all the hundreds of photos from this trip that I added to the map are no longer on the map!!! Someone on the Help Forum told someone else to refresh a page and the map will appear again - and it works. Now, I can't add photos to albums - it looks like they are added, but when I check the album, some of yesterda's photos had not appeared. Suddenly, now appeared. Also, my descriptions appeared in duplicate! Today, 13 May 2019, everything I try to do on Flickr takes a long time to do.
My photos taken at the National Butterfly Centre, Mission, South Texas, have now come to an end, so you can sigh a huge sigh of relief : ) Today I added 22 photos taken at another place that we called in at later in the afternoon, the Valley Nature Centre. Unfortunately, we only had an hour there before closing time, but how glad we were that we found this place. The highlight there was watching 25 Yellow-crowned Night-Herons coming in to roost for the night in the trees, right where we were standing! What a great sight this was, and we were lucky enough to have a good, close view of these gorgeous birds, though in very poor light. We also saw some Purple Martins and their circular, hanging nesting "gourds".
On Day 6 of our birding holiday in South Texas, 24 March 2019, we left our hotel in Kingsville, South Texas, and started our drive to Mission, where we would be staying at La Quinta Inn & Suites for three nights. On the first stretch of our drive, we were lucky enough to see several bird species, including a Golden-fronted Woodpecker, Hooded Oriole, Red-tailed Hawk, Crested Caracara, Harris's Hawk, Pyrrhuloxia male (looks similar to a Cardinal) and a spectacular Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. This stretch is called Hawk Alley.
We had a long drive further south towards Mission, with only a couple of drive-by photos taken en route (of a strangely shaped building that turned out to be a huge, deserted seed storage building). Eventually, we reached our next planned stop, the National Butterfly Centre. This was a great place, my favourite part of it being the bird feeding station, where we saw all sorts of species and reasonably close. Despite the name of the place, we only saw a few butterflies while we were there. May have been the weather or, more likely, the fact that I was having so much fun at the bird feeding station. We also got to see Spike, a giant African Spurred Tortoise. All the nature/wildlife parks that we visited in South Texas had beautiful visitor centres and usually bird feeding stations. And there are so many of these parks - so impressive!
Tomorrow, I will be able to start sorting and editing images taken on Day 7 of our 13-day trip!
The difficulties you meet will resolve themselves as you advance. Proceed, and light will dawn, and shine with increasing clearness on your path.~Jim Rohn
Taken from a point just below the summit of Mount Teide and below smoking evidence that the volcano is still very much alive. This is one of the many sulphur fields at this height and the smell is very strong on occasions.
This part of the peak is easily accessed by cable car and a short walk takes one away from most of the tourists. The main summit is away to the left and out of shot. It is possible to climb to the very top and look into the cone but you have to have the foresight to apply for a permit. Oh and not be too affected by the difficulty in breathing - the height is about 11k feet at this point.
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to everyone who celebrates this special day today!
What a mess Flickr was last night! I had difficulty adding titles to my uploaded images, comments didn't save and, after I had added a description to each of the 20 photos, the descriptions all disappeared. When I opened Flickr this morning, there was still no sign of them. Then, suddenly, they re-appeared. I have also just discovered that all the hundreds of photos from this trip that I added to the map are no longer on the map!!! Someone on the Help Forum told someone else to refresh a page and the map will appear again - and it works. Now, I can't add photos to albums - it looks like they are added, but when I check the album, some of today's photos have not appeared. Suddenly, now appeared. Also, my descriptions have just appeared in duplicate! Think I will get off Flickr and see if it is back to "normal" later.
My photos taken at the National Butterfly Centre, Mission, South Texas, have now come to an end, so you can sigh a huge sigh of relief : ) After that, I have just a few photos taken at another place that we called in at later in the afternoon. Unfortunately, we only had an hour there before closing time, but how glad we were that we found this place. The highlight there was watching 25 Yellow-crowned Night-Herons coming in to roost for the night in the trees, right where we were standing! What a great sight this was, and we were lucky enough to have a good, close view of these gorgeous birds. We also saw some Purple Martins and their circular, hanging nest "gourds".
On Day 6 of our birding holiday in South Texas, 24 March 2019, we left our hotel in Kingsville, South Texas, and started our drive to Mission, where we would be staying at La Quinta Inn & Suites for three nights. On the first stretch of our drive, we were lucky enough to see several bird species, including a Golden-fronted Woodpecker, Hooded Oriole, Red-tailed Hawk, Crested Caracara, Harris's Hawk, Pyrrhuloxia male (looks similar to a Cardinal) and a spectacular Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. This stretch is called Hawk Alley.
We had a long drive further south towards Mission, with only a couple of drive-by photos taken en route (of a strangely shaped building that turned out to be a huge, deserted seed storage building). Eventually, we reached our next planned stop, the National Butterfly Centre. This was a great place, my favourite part of it being the bird feeding station, where we saw all sorts of species and reasonably close. Despite the name of the place, we only saw a few butterflies while we were there. May have been the weather or, more likely, the fact that I was having so much fun at the bird feeding station. We also got to see Spike, a giant African Spurred Tortoise. All the nature/wildlife parks that we visited in South Texas had beautiful visitor centres and usually bird feeding stations. And there are so many of these parks - so impressive!
nationalbutterflycenter.org/nbc-multi-media/in-the-news/1...
"Ten years ago, the North American Butterfly Association broke ground for what has now become the largest native plant botanical garden in the United States. This 100-acre preserve is home to Spike (who thinks he is a butterfly) and the greatest volume and variety of wild, free-flying butterflies in the nation. In fact, USA Today calls the National Butterfly Center, in Mission, Texas, 'the butterfly capitol of the USA'." From the Butterfly Centre's website.
The Centre is facing huge challenges, as a result of the "Border Wall". The following information is from the Centre's website.
www.nationalbutterflycenter.org/about-nbc/maps-directions...
"No permission was requested to enter the property or begin cutting down trees. The center was not notified of any roadwork, nor given the opportunity to review, negotiate or deny the workplan. Same goes for the core sampling of soils on the property, and the surveying and staking of a “clear zone” that will bulldoze 200,000 square feet of habitat for protected species like the Texas Tortoise and Texas Indigo, not to mention about 400 species of birds. The federal government had decided it will do as it pleases with our property, swiftly and secretly, in spite of our property rights and right to due process under the law."
"What the Border Wall will do here:
1) Eradicate an enormous amount of native habitat, including host plants for butterflies, breeding and feeding areas for wildlife, and lands set aside for conservation of endangered and threatened species-- including avian species that migrate N/S through this area or over-winter, here, in the tip of the Central US Flyway.
2) Create devastating flooding to all property up to 2 miles behind the wall, on the banks of the mighty Rio Grande River, here.
3) Reduce viable range land for wildlife foraging and mating. This will result in greater competition for resources and a smaller gene pool for healthy species reproduction. Genetic "bottlenecks" can exacerbate blight and disease.
IN ADDITION:
4) Not all birds can fly over the wall, nor will all butterfly species. For example, the Ferruginous Pygmy Owl, found on the southern border from Texas to Arizona, only flies about 6 ft in the air. It cannot overcome a 30 ft vertical wall of concrete and steel.
5) Nocturnal and crepuscular wildlife, which rely on sunset and sunrise cues to regulate vital activity, will be negatively affected by night time flood lighting of the "control zone" the DHS CBP will establish along the wall and new secondary drag roads. The expansion of these areas to vehicular traffic will increase wildlife roadkill.
6) Animals trapped north of the wall will face similar competition for resources, cut off from native habitat in the conservation corridor and from water in the Rio Grande River and adjacent resacas. HUMANS, here, will also be cut off from our only source of fresh water, in this irrigated desert.
Hello ladies! I would first like to apologize for the delay, technical difficulties aren't fun. Since this happened, I decided to save time by NOT judging your creepy close ups, but instead of getting rid of 6 of you like planned, I will keep all of you. But, that means next week 2 MODELS will be eliminated from the competition. Don't worry, in the future themes will go up at the right times.
Now, for your first theme, I picked something relatively easy.
"Karma's A Bitch...And Death Is Her Sister."
In this theme, you will be victims of the lovely Karma. If you already don't know, Karma is the result of your actions. It could be good or bad, but is usually referred to as bad. So, in the spirit of Karma each of you lovely models will be portraying a different death, that resulted from doing something bad. It could be anything from stealing to a catfight in the house. It's up to you.
Requirements:
~Full body shot
~Fierce and fashionable outfits
~Death must be easy to see
~Try not to make this a bloodbath.
~A small story of what happened in the photo will be appreciated!
~Tag me in photos please
**YOU CANNOT USE STRANGLED AS A DEATH. I'M USING IT AS AN EXAMPLE. BUT YOU CANNOT USE STRANGLED.**
Photos will be due the 31st. That's 2 weeks. Anyone who doesn't turn in a photo will be eliminated.
Be fierce, be creative, but most of all...BE CREEPY.
MODELS WHO TURNED IN A PHOTO: (in no order)
1. Jinkx Pidgen- www.flickr.com/photos/bratzjaderox/9533522305/in/contacts/
2. Lucy Hale- www.flickr.com/photos/94274459@N07/9535715862/
3. Lou- www.flickr.com/photos/mramerica2011/9566343458/in/contacts/
4. Lorelei Sin- www.flickr.com/photos/fabulousdolls/9595123368/
5. Marie-Andre Mothee-
6. Victoria Van Hartog- www.flickr.com/photos/malaysianbarbiecollector/9607155096...
7. Rose Lee-
8. Angel Jade-
9. Jade Nicole West- www.flickr.com/photos/93220200@N07/9547396978/
10. Okiku- www.flickr.com/photos/72298509@N05/9569918363/
11. Sweetie-Regina Green- www.flickr.com/photos/reginia/9636788928/
12. Katy Daly- www.flickr.com/photos/bratzboymax/9557593264/
13. Jemima Grey- www.flickr.com/photos/52629305@N07/9611950863/14.
14.Penelope Delis- DROPOUT
15. Ashlee Smith-http://www.flickr.com/photos/ashlee_bitch_fashion4/9593241430/
16. Zoé A- www.flickr.com/photos/87049656@N06/9574104823/in/contacts/
17. Sweettina Dágwood- www.flickr.com/photos/diva3tina/9633885387/
18. Spencer Grey- www.flickr.com/photos/happydollplace/9640969420/
19. Jamlia Blossom-
20. Spencer Martinéz-
Had difficulty creating a picture for my own chosen theme, lol;
this morning the first snow arrived, and when I saw the tyre tracks I was thinking of which road people have to take these days : with all that divided and twisted (non)information we get from the media, we sometimes lose our own path and forget which way to pick and create our daily life;
ugh, I've said :-)
The difficulty with the ‘do art for yourself’ point of view is that it becomes hard to integrate any external check about whether your art is merit-worthy. Doing dull work that pleases you and nobody else is fine. Unless, that is, something jogs you out of the rut and you get depressed about having done dull work when you might have done interesting work. Balancing internal and external demands is hard.
Gears: Nikon D50, AFS Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 DC
Location: Gong Badak, Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia
Processing: Desaturated, HSL, cropped 1:1
The difficulties you meet will resolve themselves as you advance. Proceed, and light will dawn, and shine with increasing clearness on your path. ~ Jim Rohn
. . . meant to be viewed on black . . . Via Fluidr . . . (then click on image to view details LARGE) . . . bigger is definitely better . . .
Drs 37403 drags an errant set through Dagworth near Stowmarket as 5P99 Stowmarket-Norwich having been assisted previously by Freightliner 66502 to get into Stowmarket loop after operating difficulties with 90012 seen just at the end of the train dor.The sight and sound of this climbingHaughley bank was superb!!
View from Mt Difficulty Vineyard in Bannockburn where we are having lunch. April 27, 2016 Central Otago in the South Island of New Zealand.
The Cellar Door at Mt Difficulty Wines is known as much for its dramatic views of rugged rock and thyme landscapes as it is for its stylish wine and food.
The unique microclimate of the Bannockburn area is partially created by the presence of Mount Difficulty which overlooks the southern Cromwell basin, and is the namesake of Mt Difficulty Wines. Mount Difficulty is integral in providing low rainfall and humidity for the region. Bannockburn enjoys hot summers, a large diurnal temperature variation and long cool autumns; conditions which bring the best out of the Pinot Noir grapes. These conditions, along with soils which are ideal for viticulture, provide an excellent basis not only for Pinot Noir, but also for Pinot Gris, Riesling, and Chardonnay. The soils are a mix of clay and gravels, but all feature a high pH level; grapes produce their best wines on sweet soils.
For More Info: www.mtdifficulty.co.nz/aboutus/ourstory.html
A free Spirit
Mirit Ben-Nun was born in Beer- Sheva in 1966. Over the years she has presented in solo exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions in Israel and around the world.
When she was six, her father was killed in a car accident, leaving behind his wife and two daughters, Mirit and Dana.
Ben-Nun had difficulty concentrating on studies, which caused behavioral problems, and at the age of fourteen she dropped out of the education system and went to work. The colors and writing tools gave her a quiet private space and her own way of surviving. Creativity eased her tumultuous soul.
Until her early 30’s she worked as a telemarketer and for the next fourteen years she doodled and doodled. While talking to customers she filled thousands of pages with lines and dots that resembled hundreds of compressed eggs and seeds which she threw away.
In a large portion of each page she would pick a random word and would write it down over and over while concentrating on her hand movements.
Even then she noticed the rising of her need and obsession as she practiced the endless doodling and writing.
Ben-Nun testifies that the lack of artistic training to paint "correctly" freed her from adhering to the rules of painting and allowed her freedom and spirit of rebellion.
In 1998, she received a bunch of canvases and acrylic paints as a gift from her sister.
She brought the acrylic into her world of lines and dots; she went back to painting women and masks that appeared in her childhood paintings and flooded them with lines and dots without separating body and background.
This is also the moment when Ben-Nun began to refer to herself as a painter.
and when art became the center of her life.
The intense colors in Ben-Nun's paintings sweep the viewer into a sensual experience. The viewer traces the surge of dots and lines formed in packed layers of paint. The movement leads to a kind of female-male hormonal dance within the human body and to a communion with an artistic experience of instinct, passion, conceiving and birth.
Contributing to this experience is the wealth of characteristics reminiscent of tribal art. Ben-Nun merges these with a humorous and kicking contemporary Western Pop art. In the language of unique art, Ben-Nun creates an unconventional conversation between past and present cultures.
It is evident that the paintings emerge from a regenerated need and desire, a force that erupts from her soul, a subconscious survival instinct to which she cannot or does not want to resist.
Ben-Nun places women at the center stage where they are her work focus. The paintings obsessively deal with the existential experience of being a woman in the world. A few of the women's paintings carry feminist slogans stressing the women's struggle in society, a critique for being held to perfection and being required to perform as a model of "beauty, purity and motherhood". Feminism pulsates in Ben-Nun's psyche, through her diverse female images and the play between beauty and unsightliness; Ben-Nun assimilates the consciousness of feminine possibility, of not being "perfect", of being powerful, influential, and outside social norms. This mandates a departure from acceptable limitations where Ben-Nun creates a new world of free spirit for women.
Mirit Ben-Nun is a mother of three and the grandmother of three grandchildren.
Mirela Tal
Heavens, I want to improve...
And don’t cry over new difficulties...
Get rid of doubts in your soul...
I hope I have enough wisdom...
Too many minutes wasted
From the grievances that I hid in my heart...
Heavens, how many tears have been measured away,
I've already cried heartily...
Heavens, I'm just a woman
That she is vulnerable and so trusting.
From deception there is a crack in the heart,
But there is no point in shedding them with tears...
I forgive insincere people
That fate, like dust, has dropped away...
It's not enough for me to be the only one,
And for my beloved, and for her to believe...
Heavens, I would like a woman’s happiness -
This is to know that the family does not collapse,
This is the joy of a child's laughter,
These are hearts of advice to listen to...
Heavens, I’m letting go of the past...
And I forgive myself for my weaknesses...
I will always believe in good things,
I will wait not for trouble, but for joy...
May all your wishes come true...
What is promised is being fulfilled...
Despite the fate of torment,
It is very important to remain a woman...
Explore: Apr 29, 2009 #361
“Fear not [there is nothing to fear], for I am with you; do not look around you in terror and be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen and harden you to difficulties, yes, I will help you; yes, I will hold you up and retain you with My [victorious] right hand of rightness and justice” (Isaiah 41:10, AMP).
It’s easy to look around at what’s happening in the earth today and be tempted to feel afraid or dismayed. Circumstances may seem overwhelming. Maybe your business is struggling, maybe you lost your job, maybe you’re struggling in a relationship or concerned about the economy. During times like these, it’s important to remember that God has promised that He will never leave us nor forsake us. In fact, not only is He with us, He has promised to strengthen us and harden us to difficulties. That means, when tough times come, they just bounce right off of you. You don’t allow your circumstances to steal your peace and joy. You have the attitude that says, “This may be a big problem, but my God is bigger!”
There are some modest difficulties in making portraits of pure strangers but perhaps a little laziness too. I rarely do more than five or six clicks. I have tried a few times to make portraits in a single take. Don’t try this if you do not have a reference screen to judge the result of that lonely click before saying goodbye to you subject. My biggest difficulty is often is to start writing. The second is to keep the text short.
I have already written that one stranger can lead to another, so there is not always a need to search very hard. In the case of Charlie, it was Christian (see photo # 101 of my first series) who introduced me to her.
In the Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough of Montréal, there is an old bus terminal that has been disused. Its land, which belonged to the Société de Transport de Laval (STL), would be ideally suitable to house buildings for social services. It is central to the borough and has a direct existing access to the busiest metro station in the north of the city. Unfortunately, this public property was sold for one dollar to a state agency, which then put it up for sale in the most opaque possible way to private interests in accordance with the policies of our current provincial administration.
I had noted with astonishment in the middle of the winter that, perhaps on its very coldest day, some homeless people had settled outdoors in its parking lot sheltered from public view, but not the cold, by walls along Lajeunesse Street.
A few weeks ago, when it seemed that the summer had finally arrived to Montreal, I went back there. When I got off my bike, I crossed Christian who was heading towards the old terminus too. He had a beat up acoustic guitar under his arm and some friends with him. He explained that they were squatting here since a few days and introduced me to Charlie. We discussed a little. Christian told me that he had lost his harmonicas and his old guitar during one altercation too much with a police officer who keeps an eye peeled for him. As a bonus, he spent the winter in various detention centers. His arrest constituted a breach of conditions in some judicial administrations in Greater Montreal.
Why this long preamble to tell you about Charlie? Christian told her I am a good guy and a good photographer. This was how I found myself doing her portrait. Behind the sunglasses of the first photo, there was a bit of our mutual embarrassment. We eventually chatted a bit together. Not that much, but enough still to make the second photo without the shades. Christian is seated in the background of both shots.
Homelessness is not an easy thing to live. I tend to hope that it can be a transitory state for people who live on the streets. For Christian, it seems to have become an assumed lifestyle. For Charlie, I do not know. She seemed a bit novice in this universe and let on that she was easily influenced. There were at least two other people who spent their nights here with them. Charlie told me that another girl was looking for money for the bus fare to join friends living in Trois-Rivières, a little over a hundred kilometers from Montreal. Her project, however, seemed uncertain.
I do not have the baggage of a psychologist or the stuff of a street worker to make myself a clear idea of Charlie's situation. I would have preferred to wait until I saw her again and get to talk to her some more before making this publication. That's what I had done in the case of Christian. The few minutes that my meetings last are very little to take the measure of a life. I just wish for her that this squat is a summer fling and that she gets on with her life in some other way.
It was an external event that finally decided to write this word and publish her photos. I read a few days after our meeting that all indicates the terminus has been sold to a condo developer who has already made a bundle from a public building turned in more condos across the street from another metro station in Villeray.
Doesn’t it tell you something about homelessness?
Il y a quelques modestes difficultés à faire des portraits de purs inconnus mais peut-être un peu de paresse aussi. Je fais rarement plus de cinq ou six clics. J’ai quelques fois essayé d’en réussir en une seule prise. Ce n’est pas une bonne idée si vous n’avez pas un écran de référence pour juger le résultat de ce seul petit clic avant de dire adieu à votre sujet. La plus grande difficulté est cependant souvent de me décider à écrire.
J’ai déjà écrit qu’un inconnu peut mener à un autre, donc pas toujours besoin de chercher bien fort. Dans le cas de Charlie, c’est Christian (voir a photo # 101 de ma première série) qui me l’a présenté.
Il y a dans l’arrondissement Ahuntsic-Cartierville de Montréal un ancien terminus de bus désaffecté. Ce terrain qui appartenait à la Société de Transport de Laval (STL) serait idéal de par sa location pour abriter des immeubles destinés aux services sociaux. Il est central pour l’arrondissement et comporte un accès direct à la station de métro la plus achalandée du nord de la ville. Malheureusement, cette propriété publique été vendue pour un dollar à une agence d’état qui l’a ensuite mis-en en vente de la manière la plus opaque possible à des intérêts privés en accordance avec les politiques de la présente administration provinciale.
J’avais noté avec étonnement au cœur de l’hiver, possiblement exactement le jour le plus glacial de l’année, que quelques itinérants avaient établis domicile dans le stationnement à l’abri des regards, mais pas du froid, derrière les murs qui longent la rue Lajeunesse.
Il y a deux semaines, au moment où il m’a semblé que l’été était enfin réellement arrivé à Montréal, je suis repassé par là. En débarquant de mon vélo, j’ai croisé Christian qui se dirigeait vers l’ancien terminus avec une vieille guitare sous le bras et quelques amis. Il m’a expliqué qu’ils squattaient ici ces jours-ci et m’a présenté Charlie. Nous avons discuté un peu. Christian m’a raconté qu’il avait perdu ses harmonicas et son ancienne guitare lors d’une altercation de trop avec un officier de police qui l’a à l’œil. En prime, il a passé l’hiver en tôle dans différents centre de détention. Son arrestation constituait un bris de conditions dans quelques administrations judiciaires du Grand Montréal.
Pourquoi ce long préambule pour vous parler de Charlie? Christian lui a dit que j’étais un bon gars et un bon photographe, c’est ainsi que je me suis retrouvé à faire son portrait. Derrière les lunettes fumées de la première photo, il y avait un peu de notre gêne mutuelle. Nous avons ensuite causé un peu d’elle. Pas tant que ça, mais assez tout de même pour faire une seconde photo à visage découvert. Christian apparaît assis à l'arrière-plan des deux photos
L’itinérance n’est pas une chose facile. J’espère souvent qu’elle puisse être un état transitoire pour les personnes qui vivent dans la rue. Pour ce qui est de Christian, ça semble être devenu un mode de vie assumé. Pour Charlie, je ne sais pas. Elle m’a semblé un peu novice dans cet univers et m’as admis être influençable. Il y avait au moins deux autres personnes qui passaient leurs nuits ici avec eux. Charlie m’a dit qu’une autre fille cherchait de sous pour aller rejoindre des amis à Trois-Rivières, à un peu plus d’une centaine de kilomètres de Montréal. Son projet semblait cependant incertain.
Je n’ai pas le bagage d’un psychologue ou l’étoffe d’un travailleur de rue pour me faire une idée de la situation de Charlie. J’aurais préféré attendre de la revoir une autre fois et de lui reparler avant de faire cette publication. C’est d’ailleurs ce que j’avais fait dans le cas de Christian. Les quelques minutes que durent mes rencontres sont bien peu pour prendre la mesure d’une vie. Je lui souhaite simplement que ce squat soit une passade estivale et qu’elle s’en tire autrement.
C’est un événement externe qui m’a finalement décidé à écrire ce mot et à publier sa photo. J’ai lu quelques jours après notre rencontre que le terminus semble avoir été vendu à un promoteur de condos qui a déjà fait main basse sur un immeuble public en face d’une station de métro dans Villeray.
Cela en dit long sur l'expression sans domicile fixe.
This is my sixteenth submission to The Human Family group.
Visit the group here to see more portraits and stories: www.flickr.com/groups/thehumanfamily.