Monday, June 10, 2013

Girl meets Boy


Girl and Boy have been travelling parallel paths in the same city for years, always hidden behind their cameras, intently focused on their own personal interests.   Girl tended toward human portraiture, the kind where people are not exactly captured at their best moments.  She was fearless in her approach with her extended lens and never cared much for posed shots.  More than once while photographing an arguing couple, the pair had ceased berating one another and turned their ire upon her instead.   Later she would always feel a bit smug about her role in their reconciliations.

Boy turned his camera’s eye towards inanimate objects, both manmade and natural.  He could see creatures in industrial pipes and metal fixtures. Often, there were faces comprised of knotholes in trees.  He caught what the ordinary passerby would never notice.   Though he was photographing things that couldn’t possibly be offended by his camera’s gaze, he was most respectful in his approach, bordering on timidity.

That night in their respective apartments, both Girl and Boy closely studied their photos from that day’s shoot.  In Girl’s photo of two children wrestling with their large happy-go-lucky golden retriever, she spots Boy in the background.  He is kneeling in the grass with this camera pointed straight down at the ground.  What he is photographing exactly, is obstructed by her own subjects which seem much less interesting to her now.    She looks through all her photos from that day and in nearly every one, there he is, always partially hidden behind trees, bushes, benches and in one, an ice cream stand.  If his head was visible, his face was either turned away or blocked by his camera.

Boy, looking through his day’s work, catches even smaller glimpses of  Girl.  He gets less of an idea of her than she does of him because his shots are generally finely focused close-ups.  Sometimes he does take a quick shot of things in the distance to remind himself to take more detailed ones when he gets closer.   These are the photos where he finds her.  In one frame, her sharp elbow, in another, just a small section of her face, camera blocking her eyes, mouth partly open in concentration.  Another, just a view of her long blonde hair.

Whether they will recognize one another when their paths cross again, is anyone’s guess but I think they will, and it will be a terrific match.  


3 comments:

Crafty Dogma said...

What a great story! The collage is absolutely perfect. I hope that you will publish a volume of your illustrated stories one day.

vivienne strauss said...

Thank you A for always reading and being so encouraging!

plaisanter said...

I love this! I remember reading it on ipernity. A book of yours would be wonderful!