Remnants of the gone jolly days – A one shot story

There is something intriguing about this photograph here, something that moves me in a way few of my photographs did. When I saw the harlequin head lying on a makeshift pile of junk, my first thought was this would make a fun photograph, interesting perhaps because of the contrast between the junk and the smile that lies on top of it. The smile can be what remains when the good days are over, and all we are left with are broken smiles, junk memories and the detritus of what once was a jolly good life. Remnants of the gone jolly days, as it were.

But the more I look, the more I realize this is not what it is. I mean, perhaps some may see it that way, but I do not anymore. To be honest, I do not know what to make of the image, or of the meaning of the image. I do not understand how and why the difference is so big, between my initial feeling and the feeling that I have now. It’s like I do not even remember taking this shot, or why. It’s a completely different thing, one that escapes me in both representation and meaning.

All I know is that what I feel now is a hundredfold more intense and deep; the eyes, the mouth, the expression, are as many things that send me into thinking that, on the day, I must’ve seen something well beyond my power of comprehension. I took the shot, perhaps because my inner self told me to, for unknown reasons.

For what is worth, taken with a Nikkormat FT3 and Rollei‘s Paul & Rheinhold @ 1600.

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