October 12, 2004

Sign of the Times

Masa helped me bring 5 bags of old clothing to Videotel. Belinda, the woman who cleans the offices, distributes them to other Columbian immigrants who have escaped the political chaos of their home country. On the bus, I very nearly lost my Canon 10D but Masa saved it!

We stopped in at the Photographer's Gallery which was showing an exhibition titled "Mediterranean: Between Utopia and Reality". Most striking to me were portraits of children from the 1940s. They were young children, but their faces looked incredibly old. I don't mean aged, wrinkled or weathered, but their expressions looked like those of 50, 60 or 70-year-old men and women.

Perhaps it was because they were not smiling. Kristin once asked Grandma Boone why she wasn't smiling in the wedding portrait of her and Grandpa hanging in Mom's hallway. Grandma said it wasn't considered appropriate to smile for a photograph at that time.

The exacting, stiff poses in these Mediterranean portraits were contradictory to those carefree, energetic postures I typically associate with kids. And it's quite possible these children from Lebanon and neighboring countries had already been faced with some very serious life issues at an early age.