"The body is the primary mode of perceiving scale."-Susan Stewart, On Longing
After I graduated High School, that summer, my family and I took a three week trip to France. On this particular night, 4th of July, we spent laying down on the iconic green fields in front of the Eiffel tower. To finally have the time to experience the area and the shocking size of the tower was worth it, despite being asked to buy a small souvenir or have our picture taken for a costly amount every five minutes.
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"Capacity of objects, to serve as traces of authentic experiences."- Susan Stewart, On Longing
During the summer of 2017, I got to visit one of my most dearest friends in Fort Myers, Florida. Our friendship started and lasted throughout elementary school but then she moved away. Little did we know, after we had grown up and faced some pretty hard challenges, we rekindled our friendship after I shockingly heard that she had returned to St. Augustine six years later. We both needed each other in that time in our lives and I will always cherish our time together. Flash back to today, we are still miles away but, I will remember getting to visit her that summer and finding this shell on one of the beaches that tourist fly from all around the world to find.
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"The souvenir reduces the public, the monumental, and the three-dimensional, into the miniature, that which can be enveloped by the body."-Susan Stewart, On Longing
I have never known anyone to have so many objects that possessed and brought so much joy to a human, than to the person pictured above. The items were ordinary objects, old records, torn books, succulents, and polaroid pictures. Every time one of the items were touched or used is was as if the person was holding a single puzzle piece to their identity.
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"To have a souvenir of the exotic, is to posses both a specimen and a trophy."-Susan Stewart, On Longing
After hurricane Irma went through Florida, thousands of large whole shells were displaced on the beach. I spent long mornings riding my bike and timing it with the tides so I would have the better odds of finding shells. One morning while inspecting a shell, I was surprised to find a lifeless tiny crab attached to the side of a large broken shell. The crab was the best find of the day.
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"The nostalgic input of the hand made in a (plastic world)."- Susan Stewart, On Longing
One of my most prized possessions, is a 20 pound coil vase that I made during my junior year of high school. It was agonizing to wait for the kilns temperature to settle before getting to see the final product. When holding the vase for the first time it was still very warm and the sensation of holding and seeing a whole months hard work for the first time was, well, it was overwhelming.
