A Picture Paints a Thousand Words

 I am continuously fascinated by the many different journeys that those of us sharing the same itinerary can have. We are 30 people visiting the same sites and meeting many of the same people. However, I am convinced that 30 different journeys were had, observing different aspects and concentrating on different areas of interest. 30 different trajectories of discovery, fulfillment and education.

 

Take me and Lawrence (my husband) for instance. He is intrinsically a historian. Not by training, but by inclination. He takes in facts and figures, dates and events. I will listen to the same ten minutes of explanation from our guide, Jeremy, and immerse myself in how people lived, what they got up to and how they interacted. I am intrinsically a sociologist. I am also often distracted by animals and insects, the living things that interact with humanity.

 

By the same token, I have seen the photographs of four separate people on the same trip and all seem to focus on a different aspect. Mine focus on people - engagements of people with history or interacting with each other. One group of photos from a member of our group (let’s call them “Places”) that I have seen focuses on the places of interest – bold, framed and concise. Lawrence concentrates on the people, centring a person in a view to contextualise the scene and a fourth (“Culture”) centres on the cultural nuances – for example, people in costume, gilt ceilings, dancers, weddings and customs. We each take away what we need and leave the rest behind.

 

I, for instance, witnessed many of the same scenes depicted in the photos of others  but it never occurred to me to record them graphically.

 

Take, for instance, the memorial to Odessa’s Jews. Lawrence’s photo is matter-of-fact. The words are clear, the symbolism is stark and Jeremy is seen with siddur (prayer book) in hand, ready to recite the Kaddish (prayer we say when remembering the dead). This is a moment in history (our own) juxtaposed against an historical event - clear recording for posterity of what happened, with whom, how and why – an historian’s perspective.

 

“Places'” photo is front on, shows the monument in its entirety, framed by its surroundings. Nothing else. “Culture” has not included this monument in their album at all. Perhaps because it is a monument and doesn’t fit in with the cultural bias of their collection of photos.

 

I took two photos of the same monument, one from behind, observing the people engaging with it. This picture invites the viewer to become a part of the scene, almost observing it from within, feeling the mood of the people beyond (admittedly, if I were taller, there would be a better portrayal of the people).

 

The other picture I deliberately took slightly from the side and from on the ground looking up. This places flowers prominently in the foreground, obscuring the writing but giving a sense of proprioception to the monument itself, an awareness of its place and interaction with its surroundings, a juxtaposition of life and death.

My picture of the Potemkin Steps is just that, a picture of the Potemkin Steps. No people.

It is symbolic of the gateway to the city that the location affords. I can visualise centuries of travellers arriving at the port and making their way up these steps to begin their engagement with Odessa.

I took another picture of members of our group on the steps. The steps themselves are only visible in the distance but the group is watching a clip taken from the film “Battleship Potemkin” on a laptop.

Lawrence’s Potemkin Steps are posed photos of the two of us, a record of our day on the Potemkin Steps.

Other photos show the multitude of life, for instance the variety of animals and birds cruelly carried around by hawkers, selling the opportunity to hold it or photograph it for a brief moment. There are photos of people coming up the steps taken from the top, coming down, taken from the bottom. There are people in costumes of all descriptions. Other than for my own photographs, I cannot comment on what motivated the photographers. I can only observe what I see in their pictures, what has been deliberately preserved by them for posterity.

Each of us has recorded the memento that he or she wished to take away from this experience. Each of us has focused on a different facet of the same experience. None of us is right. None of us is wrong. Each of us is expressing our own individual take on the same set of circumstances – a fascinating look at human nature. We cannot rely on our fellow travellers to have shared the same experiences or preserved the same memories. Each memory and the tangible records of each individual's experiences are different and unique.