It’s a world that is always changing and sometimes it gets strange, weird, dark and ugly. Sometimes, you don’t recognize this world you’ re living in.
Still, it’‘s ours. Our world and we are part of it. It contains our summers, our friends, the people we care and love. And there is beauty in it. And there’ s beauty in various places, even you do not see it, in front of your eyes.
It’s this world that Michael Galinsky – our good friend Michael Galinsky, cinematographer, photographer, director, writer, musician, an unstoppable creative soul – has his eyes upon. He takes pictures, captures its moments.
Michael chose a few of these ‘moments’ he took of the summer from the other side of the Ocean and sent them to us. Along with some notes, a few words, specially written for the Blender.
Just a few months back (although it seems like an eternity with all the things that have happened in our lives) Michael Galinsky was at the International Thessaloniki Film Festival (a big fan of the Festival too). He was there to present his photograph book/album The Decline of Mall Civilization“, an amazing work! Also his movie “Who Took Johnny?” chosen by John Waters himself as part of his carte blache presentation.
Micheal writes:
“I grew up about a 3 hour drive from the coast of North Carolina. Actually, when I was a child it was probably four hours because there was no highway to the coast yet. These days, I’d rather take the back roads, but everybody else is in a rush to get to the ocean. Highways insulitis from the world around us.
During my childhood, my family went to the beach for a week every summer. While I was walking along the waves this past week, I thought about the fact that that week was the one time all year that us children, spent a concentrated amount of time with our parents.
When I was very young we would all stay in one motel room with two beds. Then we moved to a one bedroom apartment at the same motel, and later we started to get a small cottage.
The beach that we went to was a coastal barrier island called topsail, and it had only been inhabited with vacationers in the previous 20 or 30 years.
At the time, when can find fossilized sharks teeth and other bones on the beach, and we spent a good deal of time scanning the shore collecting them. They came from seabeds that washed up shells and other ephemera. Now it’s very rare to find one because they’ve been so picked over.
However those memories, and habits, still large for me. I still keep an eye on the ground for sharp black objects. Now, I walk the beach looking for photos as well.
This week we went to the beach for a couple of days, and because of the quarantine is slowly lifting, there were almost no places available to rent. We ended up getting a room in one of the motels, like my family used to stay in.
We took a swim in the ocean and I thought a lot about my parents.
We spread my fathers ashes at the beach. My mother died last September and we plan to spread hers in the ocean as well.
After eating dinner I walked down to beach just as the sun was cutting through the beach houses.
The sun rises over the ocean and sets over the sound that depresses the island from the mainland.
The light slashed through the space and I only had a few minutes. With my phone I went hunting. There are no more sharks teeth, but I can always chase the light ‘.
** Special thanks to Efie Papazahariou , a special friend and collaborator of Blender 🙂 – whose idea and work made this extra summer edition, so fine!
