Urban grunge

Well, that's not really the right term.... an old university friend has been doing a lot of photography. He's also immensely clever and deeply thoughtful. A look at his website reminded me what photography can do. Needless to say, I have not captured the mood nor can I match the composition in these pictures.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Rob's website links to a second one, if you click on the "More" tab. This one includes poems, writing, videos (with transcripts) as well as more pictures.

The emotional mood of this is deeply evocative.

I had contacted Rob as I was sure I remembered him saying, all those years ago, in a deep and theatrical voice, "Thanatos! Thanatos!" and that it was from a poem. However, not only could he not remember (though he was interested in psychoanalytic theory at that time, and the opposing drives of Eros and Thanatos) but neither other English graduates nor, er, ChatGPT could offer any elucidation.

I had thought it was T S Eliot... but no. The end of "The Waste Land" offers the repeated "Shantih shantih shantih" but that's hardly the same. "The Hollow Men" also uses repetition:

    This is the way the world ends

    This is the way the world ends

    This is the way the world ends

    Not with a bang but a whimper.

No Thanatos!