2015 is nearing its end, and new promises will soon welcome
yet a new year. As I look back to more than 40 years of travel I enjoyed around
the globe, I am reminded that many of the countries I knew as most welcoming,
now have walls around them.
Here is a picture I took in 2000 in Bilbao, Spain. I was
looking through the view finder of my 1948 Rolleiflex TLR to frame the calm
posture of this man with the backdrop of arches and palm trees. I waited for a few
minutes hoping someone else would walk into the frame to contrast the man’s
posture, perhaps by rushing to catch a taxi or being late to a meeting.
Instead, this dog came out of nowhere, stood up on his hind
legs and looked at me. It was that split second of the unexpected I was waiting
for.
Today, as I think of walls, I wonder who is behind the
fence: the man or the dog.
December 20, 2015
© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2015
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