In Space and Time
In the world of artsy shots, this wouldn’t even register. Having spent 10+ hours in a plane over two flights, an overnight above the Atlantic, a few hours in a train station, three cab rights to/from airports, and finally an hour and a half on a train, art becomes wonderfully subjective in the moment.
Emma and I started experimenting with these wide-angle self-portraits in Barcelona, as you might remember. However, taking the additional goal of letting light and reflection challenge perspective is something new to add to the toolkit, and, in this case, it worked pretty well. I laid the phone on the tabletop, ensuring the self-timer was all set correctly to 10-second timing, took a couple of test shots, had a slight elevation using an Airpod case later, and presto, tired selfie magic ensued.
I provide all this background not for the technical “how I did it” side of things but to highlight that even in our most exhausted state, we can make the most of our circumstances. Sometimes, all it requires is looking up or around to catch the faintest reflections of our humanity.
Train rides are always an exciting blend of the banal and fantastic. For every business person in a suit or dress, there is an equal if not greater amount of holiday-goers, children, or others occupying the seats around. At my table, I was surrounded by an avid reader of Sarah Maas, a sallow-faced youth of unknown heritage, and another woman who pecked away at her keyboard, attempting to get work done. In between stops, people crowded onboard, looking to shoehorn backpacks and suitcases into every available spot and their bottoms into the unreserved seats still available amongst the five attached rail carriages.
It’s a delicate dance, this assemblage of persons to destinations known and unknown. At each stop, eyes hunt around, watching the departing and arriving, determining the stories each carries. We’re intrigued by the joie de vivre or the lack that each brings as if each is bringing a single candle to a darkened cathedral. For every grim face of a love lost, there’s an equal smile found in the innocence of youth, a first train ride from Dublin onward or back. It’s not all silence and solemnity either; friends are on their way to stag and hen parties, concerts, or a weekend away in Galway or Athlone. No matter the destination, we’re all headed somewhere for some reason and purpose.
These backdrops or sets we find ourselves as actors in are part of the joy of the journey. These moments allow us to find our place in time in an unravelling narrative involving us for the briefest moments. We become the chess pieces moved about a board in randomised order, all the better to serve the whims and fancies of this celestial chaos we are part of. The best part is that we get to watch, learn, and participate to the level we can.
As this new week rolls around and new challenges await, I’m reminded that for every reflection, every look I cast around, I’m in the place where I need to be, engaged in the dance of trillions of atoms whirling around in synchronicity to a timeless clock. I’m grateful to be here, tired as I may be, enjoined in the fabric of stories and narratives yet unfolding. I hope you also recognize your place in these stories yet to be written and embrace them.
May it ever be so.
