finding dad. again




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on my last day in london last year, i visited the wellcome collection, on the euston road. i'd never before heard about the collection, a poster in a tube station drew my attention. 
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since fashioned skulls seem all the rage at the time {december 2012}, and since death is an occupational hazard on my mind, a visit seemed appropriate.
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in the last of five elaborately laid out exhibition rooms my eye stills on anonymous amateur photographs. as i slowly walk from one vintage black & white {& sepia} photograph to the next, i discover a group photo, with skull. as i peer closer into the eyes of the men assembled in the group photo, i notice the face in the left hand corner. that man’s face… he?
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my cerebral storage cabinet flings open. what is this? Is this... ? never! i stroll on, ignoring my surprise, to step straight into reverse. i peer into the demure face on the left again, drinking in its magnetizing features. at that exact moment, i chuckle. i think.  
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please find on the right here an image of my father, age twenty something, perhaps not even twenty. now let your gaze pull back to that man’s face in the left hand corner, to move back to my dad's. at the time lacking my dad's photo, i peer into cardboard eyes of a very familiar kind indeed. checking facts later, i admit a little wishful thinking held me enthralled, as did romance and unwavering dedication to dad... hello-though!
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which makes me wonder. do exact duplicates of ourselves walk this earth a few times at any given time anyway? do you perhaps {like me, vigilantly} frown upon the possibility that one day in the near or distant future, we will be able to draw queries on people's features, thus enabling encounters with look-alikes? what would that be like? would insides match outsides? 


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just a thought, he . ..
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{image 2 & 3 from exhibition's catalogue, 
DEATH, A PICTURE ALBUM,
the wellcome trust, 2012}

13 comments :

  1. I am stupified. Thoughtful blog post, Nadine, N, xo

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  2. Wow, I had to look even more than twice to find any differences...I wondered how intensely you obviously watched those photos..I bet I would have overlooked my family members if there had been any in between! ;o)

    Your thoughts about dublicates are funny, as this was once one of my aimed theme of a photo series. Of course it would have taken me my whole life to find twins of certain people, but I still sometimes see look-alikes of other persons. There even was a really special case with myself being involved: I had an admirer in my early twenties, a very good friend of mine. I liked him, but well...only as a buddy, which made him suffer a lot. One day I heard he finally found a new girlfriend, and it was said she looked like me! And holy sh**, she did! At least back then! Even I had to admit that, although most of us wouldn't see similarities about ourselves in other people...it was really a bit scary! And you know what? They're still a happy couple today, went to Berlin and raised a family with child and dog! Luckily, I don't see her as my "twin" anymore, we changed over the years, not only in style...
    And for some amusement about similarities, I give you this one, have fun! ;o)
    http://www.exactitudes.com/

    Nightnight! ;o)

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  3. from a poster in a tube station to an intriguing question(that will keep me pondering for some time ), a fascinating flow.in a world of images we notice easily and directly the things that are keeping us busy, like they are calling us. xx

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  4. Exiting post! puh! And that postzer is wonderful, I had to look twice...
    En ja, ik denk dat er misschien een bijna-dubbelganger zou kunnen rondlopen. Ik heb laatst een artikel over een kunstenaar gelezen, een fotograaf die mensen fotografeert die echt heel erg op elkaar lijken maar in een ander werelddeel wonen. Dat was heel beangstigend om te zien, zo erg leken die op elkaar. ik kan het nu zo snel niet vinden, maar als ik het tegen kom, laat ik het je weten!

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  5. oh yes, definitely doppelgangers. my own dad brought this to my attention when as an adult, he pointed out to me someone he thought he knew very well. he was going to go up to speak to her when he realized that of course he knew her when he and she were very much younger and that the girl he knew would be an older woman not looking like the young stranger at all!

    nice to find your Dad "abroad" though. makes "away" feel a little more like home, huh?

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  6. Isn't it curious how life works. You see a poster in London and end up seeing a man who looks like your father.
    Yes, I think we all have a "twin" somewhere. At least in appearance.
    Maybe you'll find yours on your next outing! xo Carole

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  7. WOW! That s nuts in a great way!!!!! I do hope there is another like me having a grand ole time doing all I can't or couldn't, living the happy opposite of my own....maybe she already happened, maybe she is to come....

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  8. great poster great post
    many things to wonder in our world
    happy easter!
    x Stefanie

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  9. Yes such a close resemblance! I can see why it made your heart beat quickly!

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  10. oh and i love the willow down there.
    beautiful!

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  11. I too would have followed that poster, and gone to the exhibition! An inscription I saw on a tomb in Florence, comes to mind: "You are what I was, I am what you will be" ....

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