the ageless lady
a life is full of stories
boundless energy
Today’s ginko post features a couple we met as we walked in Ashby. I stepped onto some leaves to make way for the lady coming the other way, and she pointed to the leaves to tell me to be careful, she saw my stick. We got talking. Doreen is ??, but could pass for someone decades younger. She told us her life history in ten minutes, which was the history of us all. As we parted she reminded me to be careful and not fall over, or she would have to give me the kiss of life. I said I would look forward to that….
As we walked to photograph the old railway station we met Doreen and Mick, two of the most interesting people Shona and I have met for a long time. At one point Doreen asked me how old I thought she was, and she was shocked that I got it right, because I don’t think many do, because she is much older in age than she looks, or acts. She acts with a lot of energy and has such interesting stories. Her partner is Mick, who is related to a famous darts player called John. Mick had worked on the railways in the 1960s, we spoke of Beeching and Thatcher in subdued tones! Doreen told us of her life, including how once as a child she had lived in the garden city of Letchworth.
I asked Doreen and Mick to pose together and Mick took his covid mask off. Behind them is the Royal Hotel which is now closed and as I pressed the shutter a prperty maintenance van drove past, not stopping at the hotel. When a business is closed how many other businesses suffer. I wonder if politicians ever consider the wider picture of how closure affects society and communities.
When I take a photograph that really interests me I often write a little haiku. I write them in three lines of 5/7/5 syllables. They do not have to rhyme, they do not have to describe the photograph, they are simply what the image led me to write. I only allow myself 60 seconds to write it. It is about being in the moment of seeing the photograph, just as my photographs are made in the moment of seeing.
- Forget Everything You’ve Learned About Photography and Just Shoot
- The Snowdrop Finale
- Test post
- Abstracts of Whatton Photobook
- Ginko009: Bristol Paintworks in May
In a haiku world a ginko is a walk through nature observing
and as I ginko I make images of the things I notice
I then write a haiku in a moment as a response the images I make, that makes me stop to think
Finally I blog here about what the image and haiku make me think about
© Stewart Wall 2022
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