UK - Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip and Prince Charles attend the annual Braemar Gathering. By @acbphoto #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffard, 6 September 2015
Good morning. Yesterday The Queen attended the 200th #Braemar gathering. I use to also enjoyed attending the games: image via The Royal Butler @TheRoyalButler, 6 September 2015
Who joined the #RoyalFamily at the 200th #Braemar Gathering today?: image via StaaG @StaaGfashion, 5 September 2015
Completely in love with my Foreigner Band Tee from @shoplittlelies super comfy for my night in #Braemar Gathering today: image via Sarah L. Ferguson @Brass_ButtonsC, 4 September 2015
Abdullah Kurdi, father of three-year old
Aylan Kurdi, cries as he leaves a morgue in Mugla, Turkey. The
family of Aylan, a Syrian toddler whose body washed up on a Turkish
beach, had been trying to emigrate to Canada after fleeing the war-torn
town of Kobani. His 5-year-old brother Galip and mother Rehan, 35, also
died after their boat capsized while trying to reach the Greek island of
Kos. His father, Abdullah, was found semi-conscious and taken to
hospital near Bodrum: photo by Murad Sezer/Reuters, 3 September 2015
Men stand in front of a makeshift restaurant in a street of #kobane on September 6.#AFP Photo by Yasin Akgul: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 7 September 2015
SYRIA - Children look at weapons seized from IS (Islamic State) in Kobane. By Yasin Akgul #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffard, 7 September 2015
SYRIA - A man carries a weapon seized from IS (Islamic State) in Kobane. By Yasin Akgul #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffard, 7 September 2015
#migrantcrisis Abdullah Kurdi, father of Aylan Kurdi stands in front of a house in Kobane. #AFP Photo by Yasin Akgul: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 6 September 2015
#migrantcrisis Abdullah Kurdi, father of Aylan Kurdi inside a house in Kobane. #AFP Photo by Yasin Akgul: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 6 September 2015
#migrantcrisis Abdullah Kurdi, father of Aylan Kurdi inside a house in Kobane. #AFP Photo by Yasin Akgul: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 6 September 2015
#migrantcrisis Abdullah Kurdi, father of Aylan Kurdi inside a house in Kobane. #AFP Photo by Yasin Akgul: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 6 September 2015
#migrantcrisis Abdullah Kurdi, father of Aylan Kurdi inside a house in Kobane. #AFP Photo by Yasin Akgul: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 6 September 2015
#AlanKurdi has finally been laid to rest in his hometown of #Kobane: image via Barzani Hussein @Barzani_HN, 4 September 2015
Pics from #Kobane. People are shocked, sad as they say farewell to #AlanKurdi & family. @akhbar: image via Jenan Moussa @Jenan Moussa, 4 September 2015
Pics from #Kobane. People are shocked, sad as they say farewell to #AlanKurdi & family. @akhbar: image via Jenan Moussa @Jenan Moussa, 4 September 2015
Pics from #Kobane. People are shocked, sad as they say farewell to #AlanKurdi & family. @akhbar: image via Jenan Moussa @Jenan Moussa, 4 September 2015
Pics from #Kobane. People are shocked, sad as they say farewell to #AlanKurdi & family. @akhbar: image via Jenan Moussa @Jenan Moussa, 4 September 2015
#AylanKurdi's father to return to #Kobane to bury his two sons and wife: image via Gissur Simonarson CN @GissiSim, 3 September 2015
A newly married couple arrive at home with relatives on September 6, 2015 in #kobane #AFP PHOTO by Yasin Akgul: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 7 September 2015
A newly married couple arrive at home with relatives on September 6, 2015 in #kobane #AFP PHOTO by Yasin Akgul: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 7 September 2015
A newly married couple arrive at home with relatives on September 6, 2015 in #kobane #AFP PHOTO by Yasin Akgul: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 7 September 2015
A newly married couple arrive at home with relatives on September 6, 2015 in #kobane #AFP PHOTO by Yasin Akgul: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 7 September 2015
Wedding day in Kobane, Syria: image via Agence France-Presse @AFP, 7 September 2015
Wedding day in Kobane, Syria: image via Agence France-Presse @AFP, 7 September 2015
A Syrian refugee from Deir Ezzor, holding his son and daughter, breaks out in tears of joy after arriving via a flimsy inflatable boat crammed with about 15 men, women and children on the shore of the island of Kos in Greece: photo by Daniel Etter/The New York Times, 15 August 2015
Migrants break through the cordon of Macedonian
police forces, near the town of Gevgelija, The Former Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia. The Gevgelija-Presevo journey is just a part of the
journey that the refugees, the vast majority of them from Syria, are
forced to make along the so-called Balkan corridor, which takes them
from Turkey, across Greece, Macedonia and Serbia to Hungary, the gateway
to the European Union.: photo by Nake Batev/EPA, 7 September 2015
Migrants break through the cordon of Macedonian
police forces, near the town of Gevgelija, The Former Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia. The Gevgelija-Presevo journey is just a part of the
journey that the refugees, the vast majority of them from Syria, are
forced to make along the so-called Balkan corridor, which takes them
from Turkey, across Greece, Macedonia and Serbia to Hungary, the gateway
to the European Union.: photo by Nake Batev/EPA, 7 September 2015
Except for the one smiling girl holding a baby, that's the grimmest wedding party ever. But the very fact that these people would get married (unless it's an arranged marriage)says something in favor of human resilience.
ReplyDeleteTerry,
ReplyDeleteThe post is what remains of something much longer, one of those attention-testing overloads... but, one bleary moment, crippled wrist, failing eyesight, hit wrong key and poof everything disappeared.
Has happened before, try to take it as a sign... of something.
When I started out on the long retrieval trek, I understood that what I really wanted to recover were the two sequences, the Royals at Braemar, the funerals and wedding in Kobane.
Somebody here thought this was being a bit unfair to the Royals... and somebody is always right.
But I just couldn't help it.
Somebody asked, What are they laughing at?
But I thought the proper question should be, when are they doing this laughing?
Does nobody ever brief the Royals on, like, world events and that, do you suppose?
Ar they laughing and pointing at some hapless refugees caught on the wire in Hungary, on a tv monitor?
Or has MI-5 sent them James Bond in tartans, to run through a brief briefing?
Their jollity we remember is occurring a bit after the heroic PM despatched a killer drone to Syria (not quite his jurisdiction, last I checked) to take out some embarrassing and probably, in the moment of his death, embarrassed young British citizen (though not, as it happens, of sound Anglo-Saxon Stock, nor Norman either, for that matter).
The Kobane wedding sequence was meant to be the "point" of the post (though saying what the point of a post is is a little like explaining, yeesh why do blogging if you're going to be worried about explaining? ... because, hey, nobody is going to care!).
The third and fourth shots from the Kobane wedding sequence have to be among the more interesting photos ever posted here. On the one hand, traditionally framed and composed wedding photos. On the other hand -- the hand upon which we count in, let's call it history, or a historical aspect -- they are something else again. They could be frames from a Kiarostami film, for the composition. But we are seeing them in the place where they are, in real time and space, these people, seeing their circumstances, and imagining and speculating and pondering upon their histories, matching the little that we do know up against the enormity of what we don't, can't, never will know...
And then, their futures.