When Irenka photographs a cracked vase, she does not hide the crack. She lights it so the crack becomes a river on a map. The vase is old; the river is new.
If “my old is new” – a mantra. The act of photographing is secondary to the realization. Irenka is not making it new; she is witnessing that it never stopped being new. The dust is just slow confetti. Let me reconstruct what might have happened on 24 March 2029. maturenl 24 03 29 irenka photographing my old s new
If “my old as new” – a translation issue from Slavic languages (Polish: “moje stare jako nowe”). It implies a transformation: through Irenka’s lens, the old performs newness. This is the most likely meaning, given the Slavic diminutive “Irenka.” When Irenka photographs a cracked vase, she does
In Zen aesthetics, there is wabi-sabi : the beauty of imperfection, impermanence, and incompleteness. Irenka’s work is wabi-sabi with a Dutch precision—clean backgrounds, careful aperture, but always a wrinkle, a scratch, a faded thread left in focus. Why that date? It is early spring. In the Netherlands, March 24th can be cruel or kind—perhaps snowdrops and crocuses are up, but the wind still bites. If “my old is new” – a mantra
– She shows you the back of the camera. You see a watch that is not dead. You see a timepiece that tells a different kind of time: memory’s time. It looks new because you have never seen it like this – illuminated, centered, forgiven for stopping.
– She asks you to hold the watch. She photographs your hands, not the watch. You realize: the watch is old, your hands are older. But the new is the relationship between them – the way your thumb naturally rests on the crown, as if ready to wind it, even though you never do.
– Irenka packs up. She leaves you with a single JPEG. The file name: maturenl_24_03_29_irenka_photographing_my_old_s_new_001.jpg