The Arrow of Time.

InternetOsphere March 24th, 2007

As time has marched on with this blog, I’m finding that it’s become much more complex than when I first started it. That’s a good thing I guess–although an ex of mine told me that she was breaking up with me because I was too complex (or was that complicated). Duh.

Anyway, The Boy, has added himself as an author to the blog because although I’ve posted on his behalf a couple of times in the past (I’ve indicated in the posts when they are from him) the next post is best done in his words.

And speaking of Time. Here‘s something that I know you’ll find interesting. It’s a photo essay of a man and his family. A photo of each member taken every June 17th from 1976 to present. There is something dramatically haunting about it.


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  • Dr. Mommy, D.D.S.

    that is SO COOL. i wish canuck and i could remember to do stuff like that, but we can barely remember to bring the camera to weddings and big, important evens, let along taking time shots of ourselves.

  • Ameloblast

    It’s ok, the bedroom photos will work fine. Just let me know when you post them.

  • Anonymous

    it’s easy to look at yourself and people you love every day and not really notice the passage of time on their faces (and your own) but looking at those photos made me sad, and i’m writing this comment tear eyed, if i may share this with you. i found the biggest change to have occured between the years of 1999 and 2000. may have been a bad time for this particular family. after that, the man progrsses quite rapidly in age, while the woman remains fairly the same (maybe few more wrincles here and there) but of course, the greatest change is in the kids, as they transform from babies, to children, to teens and young adults. as fascinating as this “photo essey” is, i doubt if i will be willing to have one done for me and my family. we all know we get old with every single day that passes, i don’t think i can handle “seeing” it in our faces, not my own, per se, but i think i would not be able to handle “seeing” Reto or my children or anyone else i love be slowly taken away from me by time’s arrow.

  • Ameloblast

    Don’t you take photos over time anyway?

    Because the pose and background for these photos are the same, you get the illusion that time is passing while the family is imprisoned in it. In reality, the ups and downs of life have passed, and with those, these people have lived life.

    If they’ve had a fulfilled life, they will look at these pictures and feel a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction rather than despondence.

    The essay drives home the fact that time isn’t waiting around for any of us, so if you’ve got some dreams and desires hanging around at the back of your mind, you’d better think about getting to them before you run out of time.

  • Dr. Mommy, D.D.S.

    i actually found the photo essay to be quite beautiful, and not sad in the slightest. aging is a natural, amazing process. i found myself wondering what events transpired over those years, noting the different hairstyles and clothing (that i could make out in a headshot, anyway) that each person sported as fashion trends changed. i think the coolest fact of all is that these kids are my age, probably out of the house and well on their way to having families of their own, and yet they still come together every year to take this kind of picture for a project that their father has worked on since before they were born. the beauty lies in the fact that after all this time, they are stil together, holding strong. and ameloblast’s (periapex?) post above shows us what a rare commodity that is nowadays. my nuclear family portrait would have terminated when i was 2 when my parents divored and would have further included my mom’s second failed marriage (“hey, where did that guy go after 10 years?”) and shown the times when she and i were alone. now, i turned out alright and all is well, but someone might look at that and think that portrait was “sad”.

    then again, on the flip side, a portrait paints a different picture than real life, no? who knows what goes on the other 364 days a year for this family. the real success in this project lies in how thought-provoking this piece really is, not in showing how time ages us physically.

  • Ameloblast

    My favourite quote by Stephen King is appropriate here: It’s the journey, and not the ending, that matters. Oh, here’s another by him: Get busy living, or get busy dying.

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