08 May 2014

Sydney Intro/Retro-spect(ive)



You may remember the above image from last Christmas's blog entry, when my daughter & I were in Sydney. I've been sitting with my photos from that trip all these months, returning periodically to sort, consider & arrange them. The majority of the pictures I took were mainly for the sake of recording our activities & adventures with my brother & his family (and my sister & hers when they joined us)as a way to preserve the memories of our time together. Somehow, on this very first visit to Australia, it felt more "right" to just take everything into get a feel for the place & not be distracted by trying to photograph the landscape, the water, the architecture & the thousands of details in between. The camera is a wonderful tool, with many uses, but I find it can also distract from the actual experiencing of places, of moments.

Not until the final days did I feel truly ready to take in my surroundings through the camera lens. Fungus-spotted stone & an eroded rockbed at the water's edge called to me at the end of a bush walk and ended up becoming a sort of framework for stringing together the earlier, fairly random, photos. And then the awesome view of that vast country, with its rich colors & patterns, was the ultimate glimmer of magic as we flew across it on our way home a couple of days later.

So, at long last, I thought I'd share a sampling of screenshots I'm using as a reference for a book structure I've been putting together...















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Working with the photos from this adventure—even the non-family ones shown abovehas at times been difficult. They each hold the memory of moments not necessarily seen, but contained withinmemories which underline the distance between Italy & Australia, driving home the reality of just how far-flung my family is. (My daughter & I in Florence, my brother & his family in Sydney, my sister & hers in Beijing, and my parents on the east coast of the US for all but the few months they spend in Italy.) When I think about how much of my nephews' & niece's growing-up-years I have missed, I find myself wishing we could more easily be part of each other's daily lives... If anything, it makes me aware of just how precious the three-week stay with my brother's family was.

I do wonder if my parents realized what they'd started when they left their own families and brought their children to live in Brazil for five years! I'm sure it's what has given us each the freedom to feel we could choose to live any place that called out our names. And we are lucky to be able to meet in so many different & wonderful places whenever we have the chance.

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My box of Sydney-found treasuresbark, leaves, berries, papers & things I have momentarily forgottenis still awaiting the right moment to be opened. I like the idea of putting some time between the discovery of the individual items & their collective unveiling, but I must admit that I am beginning to grow curious. And I wonder what additional memories will surface?

6 comments:

  1. Oh my Lisa, you have captured it so well. That feels like my country as I wander thru them; so many familiar images, so comforting in a way. I can smell the eucalyptus from here. I love that post with the words on it as well - can you tell me where it is/what is says? Glad the Aussie memories are finding a place to call home.

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    1. That means so much coming from a native Australian, Fiona! Thank you : ) I must admit that I posted these images with some trepidation because they seem to represent such a thin sliver of what Sydney is/offers - but it does feel, to me, like a very rich little slice.
      The stone post with the words carved into it stands at the top of Wendy's "Secret" Garden, in Lavender Bay. My brother's family introduced us to this lovely spot. This Wikipedia entry has a few paragraphs about the garden:
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_Whiteley
      There are actually three photos of the slate slab woven in my selection of images in this post - the image on the right of the sixth set down shows the (plain/weathered) back, the one on the left of the 11th image down shows nearly the full text - which references a Van Morrison song, "Sweet Thing" - & then there's a detail of some of the letters on the left of the 14th pair...
      Maybe you will be able to enjoy some time in the garden next time you visit Sydney!
      - Lisa

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  2. Wonderful images. I lived in Sydney for 23 years and these photos make me a little nostalgic. Love all the texture and colours that you have captured...just beautiful.

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    1. Thanks so much, Jo - I'm glad you were able to take a little walk down memory lane, so to speak. Twenty-three years is a good chunk of time! You must have so many memories of so many experiences there...
      - Lisa

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  3. Gosh how I wish I had your photographic eye ... these are a wonderful visual feast!

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    1. Thank you for your generous comment/compliment, Margaret! I certainly do enjoy spending some time seeing a place/object through the camera lens. (I'm not so good with photographing people though - while I love the idea of capturing candid moments, I find I prefer to enjoy others without the "hindrance" of the camera/lens...)
      - Lisa

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