Richmond, Virgina (1986)
Richmond, Virgina (1986)
I took a photography class in High School that began, I suppose you would say, is a lifelong love affair with amateur photography.
Now it is so simple. My iPhone 8 takes better pictures than the Cannon DSLR for which I paid $800.00.
My Dad had an old silver Pentax 35mm. The type in which you loaded the film from the rear, pulled it over a sprocket, shut the rear door, then manually wound it into the first position.
My older brother had used it when he had the photography class in the years previous but he left it behind when he went off to JMU.
For our very first assignment we were told to go our with a roll of Kodachrome slide film and take pictures. Anything.
The county water tower that sits on I-65 and Cox Road was under construction, so after an unusual snowfall, I just drove up in my red Dodge Charger and stumbled around taking photos of various objects that caught my eye.
To this day those are some of the best photos I ever took simply because the technology was analog. It was real. It was vibrant. It was something you could touch and hold.
Feralia
“February 21st marks the Roman public festival of Feralia when the spirits of the dead were believed to be abroad in the world, hovering above their graves. Citizens were instructed to bring offerings to the tombs of their dead ancestors which consisted of at least “an arrangement of wreaths, a sprinkling of grain and a bit of salt, bread soaked in wine and violets scattered about.”
Ovid tells of a time when Romans, in the midst of war, neglected Feralia, which prompted the spirits of the departed to rise from their graves in anger, howling and roaming the streets. After this event, tribute to the tombs were then made and the ghastly hauntings ceased.
To indicate public mourning, marriages of any kind were prohibited on the Feralia, and Ovid urged mothers, brides, and widows to refrain from lighting their wedding torches. Magistrates stopped wearing their insignia and any worship of the gods was prohibited as it “should be hidden behind closed temple doors; no incense on the altar, no fire on the hearth.”
Song Of Ajax 