An Arrow Toward The Heavens
This is a picture I made many years ago that keeps coming back to me. It is an old wooden church tower that, to me, resembles an arrow that points to the sky. To the heavens, where perfect beauty exists.
However, the tower is torn by the shadow of a tree that stands next to it. The pure white and somehow "perfect" building has scars and wounds that contaminate the beauty of the construction. It is as if it has been struck by lightning.
Today, more than any other day, this photograph evokes strong emotions for me. In fact, perhaps the photograph can serve as a picture of life itself, where the imperfect, the torn, and hard-to-bear emotions and feelings are a part of the human condition. The pleasant, the rewarding, the uplifting, and the fulfilling do not come without a cost. True mutual and reciprocal love, as the ultimate emotion, is always integrated with the fear of losing that love. This sentiment holds true, at least for me.
And further, this bitter-sweetness takes on a more condensed form when one imagines his love in the arms of someone else. Doing what she did for you, the way she looked at you, the was she treated you, the way she laid with you, but with someone else.
Except from losing your child, I think, there is no greater sadness.