Tag: Khürt Williams

Nostalgia

The Tuesday Photo Challenge is a weekly theme-based challenge for photographers of all kinds to share both new and old photography. #fpj-photo-challenge

This week's challenge was challenging for me. I was looking up the definition of nostalgia.

a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.

I was born and raised in the former British West Indies. The culture, food, buildings and beaches are not duplicated in anything that can be found in New Jersey. Or anywhere else on the East Coast. Or the United States. I spent my youth living in St. Vincent, Bequia, St. Lucia, Barbados, and Antigua.

The family home and the turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea are thousands of miles away. I spent my early years living upstairs in the old Barclays Bank in Princeton Margaret beach in Bequia. The entrance to the building was about 200 meters from the beach. This is where I spent a lot of time with my brothers and friends. We played beach cricket with tennis balls and bats improvised from the dead branches of coconut trees. Sometimes we played intense games of marbles "for keeps". I don't remember the rules of marble games, but I know the games were hotly contested. Sometimes we just ran up and down the beach as fast as possible. I was always the fastest.

Me

Sometimes my Mom would take us to visit our grandparents at their home on Monkey Hill. I loved helping my grandmother gather eggs from the chickens. Less enjoyable was moving the goats from one pasture to another. Goats can be difficult. If I was lucky, Mama1 would take me with her to pick sapodilla and sugar apples and we would climb all the way to the very top of Monkey Hill. There was always a good breeze, and I could see everything down to the coast below.

Grandmother, Me, Mom | Thursday 6 August 1998

Those were good times.

I have no access to any of that, and in the thirty-two years I have lived in the United States, I can’t think of anything I have experienced in the USA that evokes those memories. The Jersey Shore beach water is brown. The ocean air does not smell the same. The food is American. It doesn’t feel the same.

I don't have old photos to share. My parents either didn't own a camera at that time, or my mom has them in some precious album of her own. My mom lives in Florida, but right now is on holiday in St. Vincent.

I drove over to a shop in Hopewell, Twine, looking for inspiration. Twine sells various items; wooden boxes, old painted stools, flashcards, pencils, scrabble tiles, labels, books, etc. My daughter came with me. The only thing that seemed nostalgically familiar was the stack of marbles. I bought a handful.

Next door was an antique store, Tomato Factory. I saw a few things — vintage oil lanterns — that reminded me of my early life in the British West Indies, but ultimately there was nothing that I could take home. Photography in the store was not allowed.

This marbles photo does not include boys in khaki pants, beach sand or sunsets.

I was saddened while I was writing this. All this thinking about my past had made me acutely nostalgic. I realise how much I have lost.

The Tuesday Photo Challenge is a weekly theme-based challenge for photographers to share both new and old photography. This week's theme is nostalgia.

  1. All the grandchildren called her “mama”. ?

Working Hard

A few weekend's ago, nature pissed on the Princeton area. For over 36 hours, a snowstorm dumped its load. By the time the wind and snow had stopped, we had over 30 inches of snow piled in front of our doorway and front door. I could hardly see my car. Bhavna and I dreaded going out to remove the heavy powder, so we waited until the next day, Sunday.

We opened the garage door and worked for over 1-hour shovelling snow from around the car. Once we had removed enough snow, I parked the car on the street while the kids and I removed the rest of the snow from the driveway. This was backbreaking work. The snow was the heavy packing kind. Great for making snowballs and snowmen but a PITA for parents who need to get to work the next day.

After digging out and surveying the work we had done, I suddenly remembered an image I had seen a few years earlier. The photographer had taken images of himself in various poses in his driveway. I tried to create something similar. My photograph is exposed facing into the driveway. The photographer had composed his scene facing out from his garage. He had an image of himself sitting in a lawn chair, drinking hot chocolate while observing himself working in the snow. Our lawn chairs were in the shed in the back. The shed was inaccessible due to the aforementioned 30 inches of snow in the backyard, so I improvised. I used an image of me sipping some scotch while leaning against a shovel.

I learned how to use Photoshop layer masks last summer. This is perhaps not the best work I've done with masks, but it was the most fun. Five images were used to create this composite.

Bequia

Reading this, I could feel myself walking on the sand on Princess Margaret Beach with cool random breezes caressing me. I could feel the just right Caribbean Sea washing sand over my toes while listening to the sounds of seagulls serenading the fish. I could see myself barefoot in khaki shorts and no shirt feeling the Bequia sun warming my neck and shoulders. I could feel paradise. I could feel the place I miss so much.