Friday, July 15, 2005

Mighty Oaks from Little Acorns Grow

Today's theme is "Progress."

Among the highlights of my week is this post over at my sister's blog.

Reading it will bring back good memories for many of you. I know it did for me.

Portrait Project Update

The response to my call for men to be part of the portrait project has been promising. The scope and nature continues to evolve as I work on it, and I've decided to expand the area to all of Chicagoland. If the Metra or other form of CTA-related transport reaches you, you're in.

For more details, please check out the original post.

Photo Work

Last night I pulled out a series of shots I took during my last visit to my grandmother's house and started working on prints of two of them for my portfolio. They're all still lifes I found there, waiting.

The thing I like about them is that they speak to me as much about my grandmother as a portrait would. Possibly more. This is the second house she lived in as a young married woman. After my grandfather was killed in an industrial accident shortly after World War II, she stayed there and raised all three of her children in it. (You parents reading this will be impressed to know the house in question has two bedrooms, one of which has no door; one bathroom; no air conditioning; and excluding the cellar and porch is maybe 800 square feet.)

Below is one of the better shots, from her bedroom.

Now that the house my maternal grandparents lived in has been sold out of the family, this is the only place in the world from my childhood that I can still visit. It means a lot to me.

Grandmother's Bedroom, 2004

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Speaking as a parent, that is a wonderful feat. It reminds me of the "old days" when we first moved into our house and the upstairs was completely unlivable. My husband and I had two toddlers and we were living in the bottom half of the house and slept on a futon mattress on the living room floor for two years--it was right in front of the fireplace, as the furnace kept shutting off on the coldest nights (negative 10-15 Farenheit). GAWD. Those were the days...

However, I am almost finished reading Barbara Kingsolver's "Poisonwood Bible" and to hear of the way the Congolese live, I feel I had it lucky even then.

Counting my blessings (and my stitches, drat!)

birdfarm said...

Dhi, I just re-read that book. I really... I don't want to say I love it, because I think she pulls her punches at the end of it, but I love reading it. There's so much food for thought in it, isn't there....

I just read an article on the present-day Congo... apparently it's worse now than it was then, thanks to continued "intervention" from the U.S. (speaking of 'progress'). I wonder what would have happened if we would have just left Lumumba alone...

Franklin, when you wrote that it's one of the last places from your childhood you can still visit, I realized I don't have any. I'm envious. I love this photo. It's full of many things, one of them being how little details make a place feel like home. Post some more of these, please? Even just on Flickr. I vist your photostream there regularly.

www.muebles-en-galapagar.com said...

The dude is completely just, and there is no suspicion.

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sghemk said...

To date, this is my favorite image you have posted. The feelings it evokes from many a viewer are quite powerful. I love that you had the chance to photograph this .... again, wonderful! ..... Susan

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