old photos. somewhere. [travels]

some place i wandered past at some point in my life. i do not remember this place but i am sure i enjoyed the way the plants grow on top of these old walls because even though i have changed a whole lot since that picture was taken i still appreciate the things i have always appreciated.

old photos. road trip. cracks in the earth's surface '07. [travels]

old photos. new york '07. [travels]

over the last couple of months, minimalism has become increasingly important to me and i have been on a journey towards minimalism for quite a while now. i plan on writing a blog post about minimalism and the significance it holds for me soon but until then i will already share where on that journey i am at the moment: photos.
in every blog post, article and essay written on the topic of photos and what to do with them, the authors seem to - without exception - offer the same response: digitalise them!
well, i have hundreds and thousands of pictures in a digital form and it's not as if they are not well organised, because they definitely are. however, when i ask myself that typical minimalist question if they "add value to my life" my answer is a very clear "no". there's too many photos. there are blurry photos, photos with a bad composition, photos from a time in my life that wasn't all that great and therefore do not elicit happy memories and sometimes there are ten photos that depict one and the same thing but i still kept them all simply because i couldn't make a decision which one was standing out or was better than the other ones. ...but there are also just too many photos is general, even if all the bad ones were in the trash where they belong and all decisions were made. i never look through them and enjoy them, i never show them to others and share memories and i most likely never will if i don't change my approach towards them. the photos just exist somewhere on my macbook and do not add value to my life.
and so i decided to improve that and select only a few photos that i truly love not from every folder but maybe from every other folder and post them here on my blog, this little corner of mine and delete the rest.
obviously, i will keep photos of family and close friends that i hold dear in my heart but i won't post those here.
and so here we go:
the first ones are photos from a short stay in new york a couple of years back:

 

 

anaïs mitchell. if it's true. [songs]

from a beach in scotland. [good things]

what friends bring me from their travels.

so vill sunne. [good things]

hupman brothers. up on the ridge. [songs]

if i love a certain song, specific melodies or entire albums more often than not this is so because i connect certain memories, feelings and places with this music. there are some voices that are able to bring me back to a distinct time in my past in mere seconds and manage to evoke memories of landscapes, colors, smells and more. when i hear the voices of the hupman brothers that is exactly what happens. their music transports me back to nova scotia and the months i spent there. it reminds me of all the hikes, adventures and explorations in the surroundings of grand pre, driving to wolfville on my evenings off to hear them play at the open mic nights at the paddy's, roadtrips to prince edward island or along the coast to yarmouth and lunenburg, hanging out at the beach, wandering around in the wet sand during low tide, watching the water coming in again. i have listened to their songs so often during all of this that they are just inextricably tied to these experiences. and since i have listened to it so many times there is such a familiarity in the songs and in their voices that i can't help but feel at home instantaneously. i think i could be anywhere in the world and feel at home just by listening to their voices.

most valuable gifts. [good things]

sometimes children intuitively know what one values most.

this gift will serve me as a reminder to the afternoons i spent with my goddaughter doing somersaults on the grass wearing borrowed jogging pants under my not-so-somersault-appropriate dress, having races to the next bench or tree or fence, improving our skipping skills and collecting leaves, stones and whatever seemed suitable to be picked up as keepsakes. such good memories.

aabig-sunne IV. [good things]

 

not yet a breach but an expansion. [memories]

like gold to ayery thinnesse beate

glass. paper. wood. and the sun. [good things]

to reminisce. [memories]

for every journey there are distinct & unforgettable melodies. 

these were the outstanding ones on our roadtrip along the shores of the northern peninsula.

these are our memories. 

this is ours.