While I have been away from the blog and the Internet, my small but real world have been refurnished a bit. My family has moved to a new house, and I had to build a new bathroom + a few other necessities. Photography had to be set aside. To say the least; life had to be set aside is more descriptive… You could say that I’m slowly discovering the world again. Sitting here in my sofa and resting, I can still feel all my limbs are there. That’s a good sign. Having just opened the laptop, I hardly know what to do with it. Amazing how fast you forget what used to be. And, where on earth did I put my camera. In the first place, I thought I would have time and energy to document the work I went through, but I hadn’t. It was too exhaustive.
So what’s it with the image I posted? While I was renovating the house, this house was deconstructed. It is the community youth centre in the area where I live. My kids used to go there after school, and stayed there until the evening, when I came home from work. It was closed down last year due to severe mould problems. You could tell if some one had been there, on the slight scent on their cloth…
So, it was with ambiguous feelings I saw that they finally decided to tear it down. The room that now stands wide-open were the biggest, where you could play basketball and where the kids often built a stage and had music and theatre performances. I’m thinking of all this, and the people who worked there with my and all other’s kids. Deconstruction of houses are always sad. So much life has passed by behind those walls. But, this time, it was inevitable, I guess… Life goes on, with or without us and our artefacts.
While I can certainly understand how life intervenes, I for one am very glad we can begin to view new images from you. In fact, I captured an image the other day that is sort of a tribute to you. I’ll post it soon. Glad you’re back!
Welcome back! …to the semi-real world of photography and photoblogs.
Sounds as if you managed and finalized your renovation and the subsequent move. So, a very relaxed Christmas for you then.
Enjoy!
Nice to see you back and glad to hear that the renovations are finished. And yes life does go on with or without us and our artefacts. Well said.
Chris, that sounds really intriguing. What could it be that made you think of a tribute to me? I’m glad to be back too!
Thanks, Thomas! I’m done with the worst, the rest will be managed more on a inspirational scheme, and when I have money on the bank again. Christmas will be calm, indeed.
And, thank you too, Cedric! I must say I have really missed reading your blog, you have always such interesting topics on your mind.
And what a glorious demise it is in your fine image
Glad to see you back between the 1′s and 0′s online. I don’t like construction work and leave it to my pals that do it for a living (we trade). Your images and ideas were missed, I was just on the verge of emailing to make sure you were ok.
Ove, glad to see you’ve returned, and with all your limbs.
Good to see you back – that image below the headline was a bit of a shock in the first moment. I think I know a little bit how you must be feeling with arms longer than they look and muscles aching that you didn’t know you have them – I had my share of renovation work and don’t want to have it back soon. And despite of trying to never leave out a photographic opportunity, at that time I barely touched a camera, and if so only for documentation.
Oh, it makes me happy to see that you all missed me. I guess I’m like Cedric to some extent, thinking who on earth would notice my absence. Well, I know a few IRL.
Andreas, glorious it was. There were two men who did everything in less than a week, including cleaning up and leaving the area as were it a newly ploughed field.
Ray, thank you so much for your kind words. If you would have sent that email two weeks ago, I wouldn’t have told you I’m okay, quite the opposite. Will be nice to stay here again, among all zeroes and ones.
Earl, I got all my limbs intact, but I can tell my shutter finger was severely wounded… But, I have managed to press the shutter again, so I guess I’m fine.
Markus, I really had aching muscles the first weeks, while I was tearing down walls and such, doing all the really heavy work. After a while, though, I felt quite strong. It was a pleasant feeling, quite another than the usual, and I’m usually quite fit since I have been used to run and workout almost every day. Anyway, It feels even better to get my hands on that camera again, much, much better.
Ove, welcome back! I’m glad to see that you have returned. When I saw the photo, I thought: Oh, no! Ove’s renovations didn’t work out so well.
And, yes, we did miss you!
Thanks, Paul! It was not really as dramatic as in the picture, but it felt not that far away.
A warm welcome back. You were missed. But, I think we all understood what you were up against an enormous workload. It is great to have you back, and you certainly returned with a memorable image and accompanying story.
Thank you, Anita! Now with some perspective, it’s amazing how little I see of all work I really put into this. The shiny top layer completely hides all the underlying layers of work. It’s like underwear, I guess.
I think this image is very symbolic of the different levels we need to tear things down to start anew – sometimes with things we build up, sometimes within ourselves. Very thought provoking post – whether you meant it that way or not.
You spotted it right as I thought when I wrote the post, Mark. Some say that you should remove something for everything you add, but this counts mostly for interior items. But I wonder if this isn’t a good idea even exterior. Anyway, I saw this as a symbolic coincident, that this house was deconstructed while I was building new.