"On Longing"

"The body is the primary mode of perceiving scale."

The primary connection with this photo and quote is the scale of "Spaceship Earth." However, scale can be perceived through the body in three different ways here. First, the people in the foreground make the globe appear large, but (secondly) the sphere appears rightfully massive when compared to those in background. Finally, the picture is taken from my point of view and thus the picture itself is scaling the sphere to my unseen self. 

"Capacity of objects to serve as traces of authentic experiences."

There are several "objects" in this image that serve to reflect the message of the quote above. The bobble-heads are a reminder of the few times I got to see the Cincinnati Reds (baseball) play in person. The Lego set is the result of putting it together from the box. Other various objects, such as the souvenir from Louisville Slugger Museum, are all reminders of past and "authentic" experiences that each served as an integral part of my life. 

"The souvenir reduces the public, the monumental and the three dimensional into the miniature, that which can be enveloped by the body." 

This little hat, a souvenir, reduces the act of graduation into a small and simpler item. Graduation is public in the sense that there is an audience that attends it, monumental in the grand importance of such an event, and three dimension in the obvious sense that the experience is very much three-dimensional. All these physical and mental aspects of this event are bundled into this single item, and are unpacked at just the slightest glance at the said item. 

"Nostalgia can not be sustained without loss." 

This image may not be of the best quality, but it is the only photo I could find of this place. This screen is from an old bowling alley in my hometown that I went to several times with my dad. I already had a nice feeling of the place because of both these experiences and just the overall environment itself. But, I noticed that ever since this bowling alley burned to the ground a little over a year ago, that there is a more noticeable sense of nostalgia towards it than before. I very much agree with the quote, and although I do think a person can be nostalgic of something that still exists, nostalgia is enhanced when that place or event can never be relived or gone to again. I could go bowling and enjoy it, but it would not be that same bowling alley. I suppose the feeling that something lives in your memories and nothing else helps to enhance the feeling of nostalgia.

"To have a souvenir of the exotic is to possess both a specimen and a trophy."

It may be hard to see, but the focus of this final image is the row of books on the bottom shelf. I primarily pulled from this quote the idea that a souvenir or object can be a trophy/proof of a certain event or process. In this case, I was given a set of these books ("Goosebumps") when I was a kid and at some point set out on collecting this series of books. At first it was probably just to have more of my favorite books, but soon it was a quest to find the remaining books. From Goodwill to used book stores, I finally finished the set several years later. Looking at these books, one main source of connection with these specific copies is the journey and effort it took to collect these books. A funny side note on these books is that the actual physical books and covers themselves were a major cause for wanting the rest as I ended up only reading about 30 out of 60 of these small books.