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Monday, December 10, 2012

word of the week


My sister chose last weeks "word of the week" for our photochallenge (me and the super talented knitwear designer Johanna at knittingmydayaway) : "collective memory".
This word is not an easy one but so very interesting and challenging in a wonderful way. I really loved working with it. You can find a good explanation of the word at Wikipedia.

I thought about this word for days, waited for the right lighting and the right subject - and yesterday it finally happened... the perfect light and the most perfect subject ever!

In the beginning of 1900 my great great grandfather and my great great grandmother moved with their daughter to Reykjvík. They bought a house in the city center, that was quite high (2-3 floors) for a wooden house in Reykjavík at that time. Later my grandmother Kristín - and later my father and his sister where born and raised in that house. Through the years I´ve heard so much about that house and the life my family lived there - on almost every Sunday-walk in the city center we walked passed that house and my father told us fascinating stories about the house, the inhabitants, him self and some funny pranks he and his friends did there, the food, the neighborhood, the rooms...
Yesterday, for the first time in my life, I actually got the chance to visit the house together with some family members. My father and his sister walked with us through the house - and memory lane - from the basement to the top and once again I was fascinated. The perfect photo-subject for collective memory - in this case: the memory of my family and everyone else that has ever lived there or heard the stories since it was built at the end of 19th century.


Entrance and tree 
in the past  -  my great grandmother planted this tree
(on this picture: my grandmother and my father)


today 
 

my fathers hand and the tree




 

 
 

 Playroom 
today:


past


staircase
I thought the staircase was really fascinating - they still have the original stairs and handrails in the house, so that all my ancestors have walked up those steps and touched the handrail


  


notice all those layers of paint?




in my ancestors steps



remains of the past
 the owners of the house kept this old wallpaper and newspaper on the walls when renovating

balcony

another self-portrait


Stone


my fathers wall 
not just a crack in the wall - my father made this one on purpose as a child to make it easier to pass that wall








8 comments:

  1. Æðislegt!! Myndin af veggfóðrinu og dagblöðunum er uppáhalds :)

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    1. takk fyrir elsku Soffía mín! Þetta var alveg óskaplega sterk upplifun og mjög erfitt að velja aðeins nokkrar af uþb 300 myndum sem ég tók þarna. En gaman var það að reyna að festa þessa upplifun og tilfinningarnar á filmu.

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  2. Kíktu á vegginn minn þar sem ég deili þessari færslu með vinum mínum, þú hefur pottþétt gaman að sjá viðbrögðin!

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    1. takk fyrir elska! :-) ótrúlega gaman að lesa þessi komment!!

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  3. Fallegt hús!!! Þetta hefur verið aeðisleg upplifun fyrir þig! Fallegar myndirnar, mig langar í stigana og leikherbergið, thanks!;)

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    1. Takk fyrir mín kæra! Þetta var svo sannarlega sérstök upplifun og húsið alveg ótrúlega fallega uppgert, með mikilli virðingu við sögu hússins.

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  4. Mjög flott hús, takk fyrir ad deila!
    Ég bjó i Vesturbænum thegar ég bjó á Íslandi, og finnst thetta lita kunnuglegt út.

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    1. Sæl! Áttaði mig ekki á því að þú værir íslensk eða talaðir amk íslensku :-) Kannski við höfum þá hisst á götu í Vesturbænum án þess að átta okkur á því? :-)

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