Like my own Grandmother in mourning for her mother since 1953, each one is wearing black. They peer from a chair in their doorways during the day but in the early morning or late at night they come out of their cosy seclusion. While the men are down in the bars drinking coffee, they take a chair out onto the street or work in their gardens.
The Greek language is impossible to me, so there’s no hope of a chat and I have to make do with the spell of their shadowy presence. I catch them watching me out of the corner of my eye and so badly want to photograph their faces. Far too wary of the ethics involved, I would never make it as a candid street photographer, and yet I sneak pictures of them when they I think they don’t see me.
In a mountain village I spot one walking towards me and point the camera at her through the windscreen of the car. She catches me at it and let’s out a tirade! The rest of the time I just get lucky now and then and they float into the frame like dark angels!
We have nothing in common and yet we have everything in common. Reading between the lines of our signals and greetings there is a depth of shared experience. We look into each other’s eyes, we smile and one even winks at me! Life is short, love is all and don’t be deceived by appearances…….
Love your 'sneaky pics' and what a wonderful post …
Ah thanks! It's the only way those pics are going to get taken……….
Very similar to my Italian relatives with the cooking, gardening men vs women, wearing black….my brother-in-law is Greek and we spend holidays with his elderly Greek parents who never seem to slow down with making wine, harvesting olives, cooking, baking, cleaning and gardening…
Donna that's so interesting. The black outfits have virtually died out here, except for funerals. But the power of the older women in still there!!
Such a lovely post. Love the photos.
Thank you so much Bridget:~)
Catherine, what a magnificent post. It takes me very much to the West Clare of the 1920s and 1930s which my late father described ~ a place and time in which the wearing of black for a year after the death of a loved one was the absolute norm.
Thanks Jean! Yes me too…..it's something that is gone here now isn't it? These women were formidable and somehow black gives them a strange powerful presence……
Such a lovely post, I love seeing how other people live their day to day lives.
Thank you! Me too it is such a treat to visit other women's lives…..
the daughter in her pink shoes and Big Hair is not going to become a Little Old Lady in black. Or will she?
Haha! Diana, I'm sure this is a generation that will not be replaced making them all the more precious……..
These are wonderful images. The ethics of street photography always niggle at me too, but the need to record what I see is stronger.
Annie that's a great point…..I intend to get braver about it and little by little…….