On Longing

"The body is the primary mode of perceiving scale."

Without another recognizable object, such as a person in the video frame, my dog (then a puppy) seems almost Clifford sized. The positioning of the camera and her close proximity to it adds to the size deception.

"Capacity of objects to serve as traces of authentic experience."

"... traces of authentic experience" directed my thoughts towards the deceptive nature of photography. It is often assumed that photography simply captures the moment, preserves it in its most authentic state. However, that in which is often displayed on social media is far from candid. My father never smiled in any photo, he always had to be serious, even though day to day he always has a joke to crack and genuinely enjoys family life. This was one of those rare candid moments I captured of my parents where my father was smiling over a joke my mother had made. It was entirely by chance, but a picture my mother treasured, as it was one of the first since we were young where he was smiling in an image. 

"The souvenir reduces the public, the monumental, and the 3-dimensional into the miniature, that in which can be enveloped by the body."

Key words of "miniature" and "enveloped by the body" made me immediately think of my grumpy, chubby 13 year old dog, who only loves me when I am home from college in the summer. I bring home his favorite "souvenir" then- what he thinks is his bean bag chair. He sleeps like this for hours and is completely dwarfed by its size.

"Nostalgia can not be sustained without loss."

The quote above brought to memory the cries of my dog at home when we first started to crate train her and leave her home alone. She would be in her crate during normal work hours and had forgotten that I was back home from college so she thought she was completely alone. She would for that first week cry, as though she had permanently lost her new family and freedom.

"To have a souvenir of the exotic is to possess both a specimen and a trophy."

My family has never been the type to buy many souvenirs on trips, one for each kid under $20 was as far as it went. So the souvenir selection process in my family had always been intense, but we would always manage to have fun while doing so. The selected photo reflects the quote because of the uses of "specimen" and "trophy" which reminded me of hunters and their victims, thus this silly image of my mother and younger sister from a few years ago.