Just remember ..

I went to a funeral this week, the first I've attended in France. I'd only known the lady for 18 months but there was still sadness and a sense of loss, knowing that I'll never see her again. I can't imagine how that felt when multiplied by the tens, the hundreds, the thousands, the millions that died in the First World War ..

All we can do today is think about it, mark the day, take a moment.
Just remember ..

Time to remember ..

Remembrance Day in France is marked with events on the actual day of November 11th, rather than the nearest Sunday to the date, so means that today I'll be at the little war memorial in our village to mark the Armistice, and I'm flattered to say that I've been asked to photograph the occasion by the lady who runs our local monthly magazine. It's the first 'commission' I've had since moving over permanently, and it feels great to get back 'hands on' again after a break of several weeks. It's also lovely to be accepted into the village so quickly and I can safely say that both Lesley and I feel really at home here, even though we've been here such a short time ..

I've photographed Remembrance Day for many, many years. This photograph was taken at the Cenotaph in Eccles in 1977. Imagine that! 40 years ago! Just think how many men from WW1 would love to be able to say that. As I remember the war dead I also remember my past, and realise once again how fleeting this life is. It's a shame it's wasted by fighting each other ..  

11.11.11

There's only one subject to blog today, of course, and here's an image of an old Remembrance Day Parade that I shot back in the late seventies. It's the Cenotaph in the front of Eccles library, with some of the guys from my old Army Cadet unit standing guard by the monument. But it's a poignant shot in other ways, too. The long, curving building that you can glimpse in the background was the old Co-op department store, called Centenary House. Long gone, of course, like the soldiers from almost 100 years ago, the space filled by a horrendous, modern bright yellow Aldi store, but captured nonetheless by the simple fact that I was able to shoot unhindered in the public domain.

See how important street photography is? How a shot with one purpose can, with the passing of time, have so much more value? So how come we've ended up in a world where you daren't even take a camera out in the street anymore? In fact, funnily enough, I blogged the other day about the last time I took out a camera in Eccles. I was warned to put it away by a guy that saw me shooting. What would the War Dead make of that? Killed for our freedom? Remember that!...