[Leica] IMG: roadside memorial

[Barry98 at telus.net (Barry Hinderks)]

Beautiful words and pictures Adam. Keep us abreast of the project.
BarryH

At 05:35 PM 25/03/2012, you wrote:
>I didn't know Terry Lee Tanner. I stopped here, along County Road 
>99, because some years ago at a Santa Fe Workshop class titled 
>"Seeing Light" one of the students had talked about doing a project 
>on the roadside memorials she had seen around Santa Fe. She had done 
>something else. But the idea remained. Later, as I took up cycling, 
>I found myself riding in the rural Central Valley of California 
>where there seem to be many of these small, hand made memorials. One 
>day, I thought, I should do something with them. But when I ride 
>there is always a push to simply . . . well . . . GO. Photography 
>and cycling didn't seem to blend well. I didn't want to risk my 
>"good" cameras on my bike. I didn't want to take cruddy pictures. A 
>new camera, a small Sony NEX-7 and a small handlebar bag, solved the 
>problem of what to take. A week of very constrained calorie intake 
>took care of the need for speed. So I stopped as I passed this cross 
>with its wreath and brass nameplate.
>
>I was glad to stop, actually. The road was very busy, there was no 
>shoulder to the right of the white fog line, just gravel. Some of 
>the cars that passed were awfully close, one of them driven by a guy 
>on his cell phone. So I carefully laid my bike down onto the gravel 
>berm took out the camera and began to explore what I was seeing. 
>This was made more complex by having to learn a new camera.
>
>As I sat on the gravel I realized a car had come to stop behind me 
>on the other side of the road. A young woman got out, crossed the 
>road. "He was my father," she said. We talked. She told me that 
>Terry had been riding on an August evening about 9:45. He was riding 
>in the middle of the lane so he could be seen. He had a headlight 
>but not a rear reflector. His daughter thought he had had one. A 
>driver headed south didn't see him until the last moment. He died on scene.
>
>She told this as she sat beside me along side the road. Not crying, 
>but clearly glad to share his story with someone. "I need to seal 
>the wood better," she said. "The sun is so hard on it."
>
>She straightened the wreath, thanked me for stopping, and returned 
>to her car. I put away the camera and rode south into west Davis. 
>Thoughtful. Suddenly the idea for the project was even more human. I 
>will not see these memorials in the same way. I will work to make my 
>images reflect something of the care their creators put into them. 
>They are keeping memories alive there where dreams died.
>
><http://adam-bridge.smugmug.com/gallery/22108054_6S9pDD#!i=1764588410&k=n9WSQ3X>
>
>Adam Bridge
>
>
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