“To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.”
- Thomas Campbell, Hallowed Ground
The best part of being a photographer is the feeling of being able to express emotion and atmosphere through simple imagery of the real world. Seeing these Remembrance wreaths outside the Dundee Steeple, and seeing the photographs come out the way they did, really made me think about this special occasion more than I usually do. It took me back to the days when I was part of the Combined Cadet Force, just 15 years old, standing outside our Remembrance memorial in my RAF uniform for the minute silence. I thought a lot more about this day back then, and this year I came to the realisation that the more time passes, the more important it is to think about it. This year marked 100 years since the World War I armistice day, 100 years since the end of 'The Great War'. Even since that day, so many people over the past century have died in wars across the world, and almost everyone in this country has ancestors or family members that have been involved in one war or another. Which leads me on to another quote which really speaks volumes in my opinion:
“The living owe it to those who no longer can speak to tell their story for them.”
- Czeslaw Milosz, The Issa Valley
This quote just sums up the whole purpose of Remembrance Day, the one day a year where we all stop to think about all the people who fought for us, and all our ancestors that were among those people. Unfortunately I do not know a lot of war stories from my family history; my great grandfathers and a few of my great uncles fought during the Second World War, and my grandfather was a member of the RAF for the majority of his youth, but that is about as far as my knowledge goes. My grandfather passed away before I was born, so I never had the opportunity to find out any of his stories. But despite this, on days like this, I try to think of them, what they were like, how brave they must have been, and how lucky I am to be their descendent.
This all leads to the main notion I wanted to share: we are all so lucky to have such amazingly brave ancestors, who risked everything (and in many cases lost everything) so that we could live our lives. Taking these photographs made me realise just how important it is to consider our history every once in a while, and even now when I look at these photos for about the 100th time, I still feel the same emotion and sentimentality I felt when I was standing there looking at them through my lens. I can only hope that my photography can instil the same response in others as it does in me.
Location: The Steeple Church, Nethergate, Dundee City Centre
Comments