White Wedding

Tired of queuing for my own hackneyed (over-eyed?) concept I take to the streets of Freiburg in search of a virgin-image, The Woman in White. I want her to marry a ‘dead man’.

He must be dead by now, the old white-haired, white-suited, white-socked, white-shoed, darkly suntanned (Ronsealed?) pipe-puffer I snapped on these very same streets, back in 1985.

A joining of two parts – kinship; ‘With this camera, I now pronounce you…’ To preside over this mirage of a marriage (the word mirage comes from the Latin mirare, meaning “to look at, to wonder at”) like The Priest of Lightness... or The Priest of Likeness, even. 

Mirages And Mirror Images

Imagine the arousal caused by a camera, dancing, tap, tap, tap, on the lap, whilst traveling over the dunes, on a camel’s back: would make for some blurred mirages! And if a puffin landed on the camel’s head, and you traced both of them – the camel’s head and the puffin, in situ: would you – when, back home, examining your holiday-tracings - be able to tell the difference between the two? 

Tracing a puffin can be tricky, and you should always use a very long pencil (like Matisse) when tracing a camel’s head. Pencils are used to being bitten. The Dulux dog doesn’t bite, he’s whiter than white. Let’s trace him, as well.

But none of these mirages or mirrored heads matter, the happy couple, they've been usurped by a sailor. What's an old sea dog - a seaman - doing in the desert? Looking for a lost puffin that reminds him of the Dulux Dog?