The bittersweet taste of exile
Written by John Macpherson
Image © Diana Markosian
I stumbled into Diana Markosian’s website the other day.
I was moved.
It’s been a while since I looked at work that is so visually powerful, and with such an engaging narrative that it brought a tear to my eye. This work did just that, and easily.
The first piece I read ‘My Father, The Stranger’ begins:
My Father, The Stranger
I knocked on the door of a stranger.
I’ve traveled halfway around the world to meet him.
My father.
I was seven years old when I last saw him.
As the Soviet Union collapsed, so did my family.
I remember my father and I dancing together in our tiny apartment in Moscow and him giving me my first doll.
I also remember him leaving.
Sometimes he would be gone for months at a time and then unexpectedly be back.
Until, one day, it was our turn to leave.
My mother woke me up and told me to pack my belongings. She said we were going on a trip. The next day, we arrived at our new home, California.
We hardly ever spoke of my father. I had no pictures of him, and over time, forgot what he looked like.
I often wondered what it would have been like to have a father.
I still do.
2013
Image © Diana Markosian
This is a beautifully elegiac exploration of the ties of family, and the conflicting pulls of ‘belonging’, all wrapped up in the bittersweet taste of exile.
Diana’s other essays are powerful and moving also, particularly Blue Eyes. Her strong and ‘spare’ compositions combined with a ‘painterly’ use of light lifts her work well above the ordinary.
These are visual essays to be carefully contemplated, and well worth some of your time if you have a quiet moment to spend with them. I doubt you’ll remain unmoved.
Author — John Macpherson
John MacPherson was born and lives in the Scottish Highlands. He trained as a welder in the Glasgow shipyards, before completing an apprenticeship as a carpenter, and then qualified as a Social Worker in Disability Services. Along the way he has cooked on canal barges, trained as an Alpine Ski Leader & worked as an Instructor for Skiers with disabilities, been a canoe instructor, and tutor of night classes in carpentry, stained glass design and manufacture, and archery. He has travelled extensively on various continents, undertaking solo trips by bicycle, or motorcycle. He has had narrow escapes from an ambush by terrorists, been hit by lightning, caught in an erupting volcano, trapped in a mobile home by a tornado, kidnapped by a dog's hairdresser, rammed by a basking shark and was once bitten by a wild otter. He has combined all this with professional photography, which he has practised for over 35 years. He teaches photography and acts as a photography guide & tutor in the UK and abroad. His biggest challenge is keeping his 30 year old Land Rover 110 on the road. He loves telling and hearing stories.
Discussion (2 Comments)
Lovely work. Thanks
Hi Andrea, yes it is. Glad you followed the link. Her work is very very impressive.