On Longing

 “The body is the primary mode of preserving scale.” On longing by Susan Steward

    This photo was taking about eleven years ago when I was about seven years of age. This image not only represents size difference of objects in general, but it also reminds me of the change in all areas of size perception as i grow up. As you can see I am one of the smallest in the photo but for me now in time that photo would not nearly look the same for sizes for all of us. 

“The souvenir speaks to a context of origin through a language of longing.” On longing by Susan Steward

    Flowers, a gift given commonly could be for Mother’s Day, housewarming gift or maybe a common gesture when two people are in love. An object that can be held and remember to represent the feeling shared between the giver and the receiver if kept, to me can be a souvenir. The context of where that gift originated is the most  important part, the origin of gift is what we desire, the origin is the love it takes for a significant other to pick up those flowers as a sign of that love. 

“The souvenir reduces the public, the monumental, and the three-dimensional into the miniature, that which can be enveloped by the body.” On longing by Susan Steward 

    Though souvenirs are most commonly a physical representation of the memory we want to hold, what makes the souvenir is that memory without it, a souvenir is just an abject with no meaning behind it. For me this image pulls together all the rocks, twigs, and leaves that were all kept as souvenirs as a kid. All ones taken from that very forest, in the photo. 

“The souvenir is used most often to evoke a voluntary memory of childhood.”On longing by Susan Steward

    An image of little me, and my little childhood stuffy, a core souvenir that is a direct translation to my childhood. 

 “The place of origin must remain unavailable, in order for desire to be generated.” On longing by Susan Steward

    This image is taken in Montana, one of my favorite places to visit. I constantly go back through all these images for hours just to remember how it felt looking at this view. Someone from the Midwest may say the same about a photo of the ocean. I have lived here in St. Augustine all my life  so I am quite familiar with the beach. Therefore I appreciate my photos of the beach but not as much as the photos in Montana, mainly because I can’t just get up and walk to this mountain from where I am now.