Robert: perhaps it has always been a roller coaster ... we old ones fear that the children will fall, and they simple hold on tight and yell with the speed :-)
Liz: it was a summer evening in michigan city. this was a tiny, cheap carnival that set up in a parking lot. the scrambler was just about all they had -- but these kids didn't seem to mind. i don't think they see the chipped paint or the spookily disreputable guy running the ride ... they feel the wind in their hair ....
i have a hard time saying anything about this photograph, or rather i have a hard time not going on and on. for me it has little to do with the carnival or what is outside of the photograph, but rather it has to do with the individuals, the two children, and their relationship. the girl seems so brave. she would save that boy from anything if she were able to. the boy is slightly afraid, isn't it? he relies of her. and yet the girl, in her forwardlookingness, will walk off from him directly into her own life.
it seems like a period photo. could it be her ponytail? i feel i am looking back in time.
it is a wonderful moment, james. i wish i knew them.
ah that ponytail! i am hypnotized by it - how will this moment of their lives, frozen here in front of us, live inside of them? and will it really live, for them? i will never forget her ponytail, yet she might have forgotten about this moment already, and she doesn't know herself as i 'know' her, through this image... she has never seen her like this, her ponytail like this. how strange, everything - the more i think about it, the less i understand... i feel like a child, fumbling for the key, in the dark, a key which is never to be found.
I rode the rides with my hair untied. But I see the wild in her, and a bit of wariness of the boy. Sometimes I feel that free, even as I finish my sixtieth year. I feel that when I dare to dream again, of Pulitzers and art shows. When I dream of a kiss again.
I do not think we lose it at all. I simply think we forget how to get to it, is all.
erin: i would like to know them, too. i have no idea who they are, these anonymous kids at the fair. i imagine their lives continue somewhere, and she is watching out for him, and he leans into her for comfort and courage. i hope she finds many opportunities to let her ponytail swing in all kinds of winds ;-)
Jeannettee: rilke wrote (thanks to erin for this quotation):
Most people do not know at all how beautiful the world is and how much magnificence is revealed in the tiniest things, in some flower, in a stone, in tree bark, or in a birch leaf. Adults being preoccupied with business and worries and tormenting themselves with all kinds of petty details, gradually lose the very sight for these riches that children, when they are attentive and good, soon notice and love with all their heart. And yet the greatest beauty would be achieved if everyone remained in this regard always like attentive and good children, naive and pious in feeling, and if people did not lose the capacity for taking pleasure as intensely in a birch leaf or a peacock’s feather or the wing of a hooded crow as in a great mountain range or a magnificent palace.
Life's journey indeed has become a roller coaster nowadays - a safe road ahead for them. Thoughtful, great picture.
ReplyDeleteRobert: perhaps it has always been a roller coaster ... we old ones fear that the children will fall, and they simple hold on tight and yell with the speed :-)
DeleteIt's time for fun!
ReplyDeleteHave a Happy Sunday James. :)
Lucia: being essentially a child myself, i envy them ... remember carnivals when you were that age? how did we lose that excitement?
DeleteWeeeee..... Faster, faster!
ReplyDeleteIf you close your eyes I can feel the motion of the scrambler
Nice picture James thanks for sharing it again
Liz: it was a summer evening in michigan city. this was a tiny, cheap carnival that set up in a parking lot. the scrambler was just about all they had -- but these kids didn't seem to mind. i don't think they see the chipped paint or the spookily disreputable guy running the ride ... they feel the wind in their hair ....
ReplyDeletei have a hard time saying anything about this photograph, or rather i have a hard time not going on and on. for me it has little to do with the carnival or what is outside of the photograph, but rather it has to do with the individuals, the two children, and their relationship. the girl seems so brave. she would save that boy from anything if she were able to. the boy is slightly afraid, isn't it? he relies of her. and yet the girl, in her forwardlookingness, will walk off from him directly into her own life.
ReplyDeleteit seems like a period photo. could it be her ponytail? i feel i am looking back in time.
it is a wonderful moment, james. i wish i knew them.
xo
erin
ah that ponytail! i am hypnotized by it - how will this moment of their lives, frozen here in front of us, live inside of them? and will it really live, for them? i will never forget her ponytail, yet she might have forgotten about this moment already, and she doesn't know herself as i 'know' her, through this image... she has never seen her like this, her ponytail like this.
ReplyDeletehow strange, everything - the more i think about it, the less i understand... i feel like a child, fumbling for the key, in the dark, a key which is never to be found.
I rode the rides with my hair untied. But I see the wild in her, and a bit of wariness of the boy. Sometimes I feel that free, even as I finish my sixtieth year. I feel that when I dare to dream again, of Pulitzers and art shows. When I dream of a kiss again.
ReplyDeleteI do not think we lose it at all. I simply think we forget how to get to it, is all.
erin: i would like to know them, too. i have no idea who they are, these anonymous kids at the fair. i imagine their lives continue somewhere, and she is watching out for him, and he leans into her for comfort and courage. i hope she finds many opportunities to let her ponytail swing in all kinds of winds ;-)
ReplyDeleteRoxana: photography is this mystery -- we have seen her as she has never seen herself :-)
ReplyDeletebut i think perhaps you understand more, not less, when you feel like a child ....
Jeannettee: rilke wrote (thanks to erin for this quotation):
ReplyDeleteMost people do not know at all how beautiful the world is and how much magnificence is revealed in the tiniest things, in some flower, in a stone, in tree bark, or in a birch leaf. Adults being preoccupied with business and worries and tormenting themselves with all kinds of petty details, gradually lose the very sight for these riches that children, when they are attentive and good, soon notice and love with all their heart. And yet the greatest beauty would be achieved if everyone remained in this regard always like attentive and good children, naive and pious in feeling, and if people did not lose the capacity for taking pleasure as intensely in a birch leaf or a peacock’s feather or the wing of a hooded crow as in a great mountain range or a magnificent palace.