This post is dedicated to a Serbian gentleman who recently wrote to me through my blog. I was very touched by his email. He grew up here, but his parents wished a better life for him, and bought him a ticket to the US when he finished high school in the mid-sixties. Off he went, never to return. He sent me the top photo of a corner in Belgrade that was dear to him, and asked me to photograph it now, and so I did. There are very few changes. Here is part of what he wrote to me in his email:"...The day before I had to go, I came out on street on which I grew up, and went to the nearest corner where I spent perhaps more time in my life then that I did in school, or at home, or anywhere else. That was the corner where I and my friends were growing up, day after day, year after year. Everything was happening there. The corner was at the intersection of street called Lenjingradska (now renamed Petrogradska) and a street named Topolska... My house was less than half a block away from that corner, but most of my childhood and adolescence, and of many friends who lived in neighboring houses, was developing on that corner. That was the safest place in the world for us, from which we launched our fantasies, our dreams, our plans for the future, our self-assertion, our sense of positive regard for each other, and everything else which those early phases of life bring. By now, most of us are all gone from that place. Some have died, some just disappeared without a trace.That day, not believing that all of that was coming to an end, I borrowed a camera from a friend and went to that corner to take a picture of it. It was still early in the day, before noon, women were going to and coming back from the market, and kids younger than me were still in school. I stood across the corner on which we used to gather, and took a picture of it, but then stood there for almost an hour, trying to remember everything about it, the smell of the air, the sounds of people walking by, the very essence of the world in which I lived until then..."
So, dear sir, I have dedicated this "Memories" post to you. I wish you well.
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