Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Memory and photography

Sometimes I like the image that a photograph gives me, with lights and colors and shapes carefully captured. But sometimes I like the image that my mind gives me. Not so intense, so accurate, so complete, but a beautiful vision for all of that, and perhaps even more beautiful than the original c0uld have been.

In Denmark in a hotel I stayed in there was a magical swimming pool. Unlike other pools that are designed so that the water reaches six inches below the deck and sloshes into scuppers that carry away the overflow (and detritus that falls into the pool and ultimately makes its way to the edges) this pool was designed so that the pool deck, the overflow drains and the water were all on the same plane. The drains were a grid in the deck and as fresh water filled the pool it spilled out into the drain. When no one was swimming the surface of the pool was a mirror, even with the deck.

No photograph can capture what I saw and these words don't do it justice. But close my eyes, and I can see it.

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