March 4, 2017

  • Looking at the Frame

    Capture the moment
    The empty frame expectant
    Memory captured
    Our shy smiles frozen in time
    A snapshot of friendship

    This is a tanka - a Japaneses poetry form consisting of 5 lines with a strict syllable count of 5-7-5-7-7. The first 3 lines are a haiku. Like most Japanese forms rhyming does not occur. This fulfills the Winter Scavenger Hunt 2017 prompt #4 - Discuss something in a frame.

    I have lots of empty picture frames. This is not because I lack photographs that are frame worthy. It is instead because I have so many frames! I've always liked old and antique frames. I went through a phase where I bought many frames at estate sales. Sadly they usually still had photos in them. It makes me wonder why someone would sell their great grand parents' wedding portrait. After purchasing these frames I'm loathe to remove the existing pictures. So they sit in my basement storage until I find the perfect picture to insert over the current resident. Then too I have been gifted numerous frames. Some are modern and some are artistic. Some have photos already in them and others are earmarked to receive a special photo. I have one that was given to me by saintvi. It is a metal frame that says "One Big Happy Family" and in that frame is the group photo of GeoWoodstock X in Sellersburg, IN. We missed the photo and ended up taking a picture (Sparky, me, saintvi and Jola500) and being photoshopped into the picture. It was the best group photo of a GeoWoodstock event to date! The other frame that I have that is special is one with a dragonfly on it that was a Christmas gift from Crystalline. It contains a photo of the two of us taken at my sister's resort house this last Christmas! Both of these frames contain more than the photo - they hold a memory of a day and a trip and an event - laughter and joy and a camaraderie that transcends time and space. When I look at these frames I see more than the smiles in the photographs...

Comments (10)

  • I've wondered the same things about old pictures in old frames and why they wouldn't want to preserve the heritage of family. Maybe because the ones who really cared aren't around to care anymore. :(

    • Too bad really. I imagine that when those kids get to middle age and start to wonder about their past they will regret tossing the photos...

  • I was so irritated at the time, but that group photo wouldn't have been nearly as good if we'd made it up the hill in time.

    • Everything happens for a reason. At least that is how it works out for me. I love that photo for so many reasons!

  • My mother didn't keep photos -- she told of her mother who was somewhat nomadic, staying in hotels much of her life. Apparently she carted around footlockers full of old photos until, during WWII, they were all destroyed in a bombing raid in London. When my mother died, I found ONE smell box of photos, mostly of people I don't recognize!

    • That is so sad. My grandmother was very much into writing on the backs of photos - sometimes she pressed too hard and there are ridges on the front - especially the black and white pictures from the early 1950s when the paper was so thin! So we have names and dates on most of them... plus my mother is a genealogist and has scanned and categorized to many of the family photos to put in her book!

  • Interesting....

  • I have seen pictures of some people who arranged empty frames on their wall to create a sort of art piece in themselves.

    I love photos too, but I don't often get around to framing them.

    There is a used bookstore in Niceville that has a wall where they put up pictures that are found in donated books with the hopes that the owner will someday return, see, and be reunited with their photos.

    • That makes me sad and happy at the same time. Sad that someone forgot a photo in a book and happy that the bookstore owner tries to reunite them. I think Niceville must be aptly named!

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