Sunday 30 September 2012

Macro Monday - A kind of homecoming


A year or so ago I walked into a small gallery near Castlemaine  in Victoria and started to have a look around.  In a box in the corner were the pages from a 1910 road atlas of the UK.  It was a remarkable thing to look at and think about.  It was published before either of the World Wars, with no motorways,  
and no urban sprawl.

I thought - "If I can find where I was born, I'm going to buy it!" and there it was.  Half a world away from where I was born there was a picture of my world that my grandfather would have known, but one that had disappeared by the time I was born.  This is a world where horse power still involved horses and a whole generation of young men had no real idea of what was about to happen to them.

I can't help but think of the number of people who lived in these villages who were killed in the wars over the next 35 years - each of these villages has a War Memorial, which for most of the year will stand unnoticed, but in early November becomes the centre of attention and memory.

Maps are memories cast on to paper - so I decided to take these memories and bring them into my world.  


You can find more macro shots here at Macro Monday.

You can find the latest post to my other blog by clicking on the Paying Ready Attention image on the RHS of the screen.

Enjoy the close ups.

15 comments:

  1. what a wonderful find Stewart; good fossicking!

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  2. Great post Stewart. I love maps. Although the atlas you found is dated, it is interesting how many little places are so crammed together whereas a similar one dated for the States would have large spaces between towns. Old country vs. young country.

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  3. A great find indeed and a great story, Stewart! I, too, love maps!

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  4. an interesting way to look at it.

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  5. I enjoyed your story. I also always imagine all the stories stored in maps. I can lose myself for hours in a map, even of a place I've never visited. Now I'm going to go off and find myself a map for a few hours.

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  6. What a neat find! Glad you were able to locate the area where you were born. Such a treasure!

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  7. I love old maps so this sort of thing is right up my street. Amazing to see how much has changed.

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  8. What a lucky find! I love old books and family history.

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  9. What a treasure! What a great idea to photograph it...very creative! I as map lover and story weaver, I also love your thoughts and story around this shot...

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  10. I love family history. A lot of info can be gleaned from old maps and other documents.

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  11. amazing Stewart...will you travel and go there, or where it once was?

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  12. That was an amazing find! Bill loves maps and he would be thrilled with one like this...

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  13. Nice post! Those two wars changed the landscape in every conceivable way. Not much of it for the good...

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