Think, Look, Make

Once in a while I take a photo that I love, not necessarily because it is an excellent photo in terms of the usual criteria. This photo has few megapixels and a conventional composition. It is just a snapshot.  To me, it represents two people coming together. It happened spontaneously. They only met seconds before I took the photo. They don't fit the usual stereotypes. The man is not represented as black men often are- as a criminal, as poor. The girl is not represented in any stereotypically feminine or objectified manner. They are different in age, in gender, in race, in height, all of those indicators of the usual boundaries we put between in each other. One is nicely dressed, one has no shoes. And they are in a moment and place defined by art. They are about to dance and the location is a museum and garden that has come into existence through one man, Calouste Gulbenkian, who decided to use his fortune to buy art and leave it for future generations. ...

            Off the top of my head, some of these start with a B or C or W. There is even that word trollop, and a series of words like “resting bitch face.” The B word is sometimes used to refer to particularly weak men. Cougar is an example of how unusual it still is to imagine a younger man and older woman loving each other. I can think of many women who are married to men 15, 20, 25, 30 years older, which we accept. But while Melania relaxed, President Macron's wife became the butt of many jokes. Regarding “resting bitch face,” I had no idea this was a thing until I heard a teenager say it. I googled it and found that scientists have even used software to analyze the “phenomenon” and it is described as an “affliction.”  Unknowingly, I have taken pictures, such as the one here, which could illustrate this affliction. This article goes on to say, “So what does this mean if you think you have RBF? I...

This is one of those times when I knew the photographs would fail me (and I only had my cheap phone camera), but I took them anyways. I came upon this scene of a man reading to a woman in park and I couldn't disturb it by getting too close. The woman's Gauginesque back and arm, the man reading with such formality and intent, all of it grasped my attention. Periodically, the man stopped reading and they both appeared to silently take in the meaning of his words. I am glad I dared to walk to another vantage point because from there I could see the magenta flower in the woman's hair and a young girl lying on the woman's lap, reading her own book. Where in the world could such a thing happen in 2016? What kind of man would dare to enact such a scene in public? Have the troubadours come back to life?