Friday, August 17, 2007

terre-à-terre



a decade ago, on a holiday in london, my daughter and i took the "scenic" route from waterloo station to covent garden, and, strolling through the royal festival hall, we heard a distant piano playing, and distant feet shuffling. we allowed them to lure us to the ballroom, and there, washed in wondrous light, a visiting dance ensemble was rehearsing for the evening's performance.
we settled into seats with a view, sipped tea, and so our day began: with the smile of a stop/start recital that felt exclusively, and serendipitously, ours.
i wish i'd had the cameras then that i have now.
*
(another agfa click image.)

7 comments:

  1. How lovely! It recalls my first bravado and solo initiation to London's tube, between planes at Heathrow, when I ended up at Covent Garden smack in the middle of a Buskers Festival. Serendipitously also, I was able to pounce on a front-row table for a bowl of soup and a crisp white, and a memory to last forever.
    A stunning photo, Lynn!
    love - ma

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  2. Sounds like a beautiful day. Love the photo, the contrast is wonderful. How I miss being able to walk across that bridge. *wistful sigh* I do believe the last time I plodded across it was for the Frost Fair along the Thames this past December on my last day in London.

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  3. What a nice memory to cherish!
    We visited it a few weeks ago and I'll be showing photos of that visit shortly.

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  4. Hey, this is nice. I didn't know this route.

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  5. My first photoexperience was a schooltrip with my agfa clack. I was a little disappointed with the results: what I saw wasn't what I got. I was 6 years old.

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  6. Oh the mysterious charms of the Click and the Clack... If only my hands were steadier.... It just shows that talent shines regardless of the means of expression!
    This photograph and story remind me of a tragically cameraless day in central London, around 1986, when I was window shopping for my first SLR. There were several camera shops in the Strand and, reaching Trafalgar Square, I slipped round the back of the National Gallery, dreaming of the day when I might own a Zenit. There, sitting on the kerb, eying each other in utter detestation, were five or six rival Charlie Chaplin impersonators, eating their lunch.
    It was the busking fashion that year, and a moment I cherish :)

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