Australia community

Part 1 of the conversation.

Another nostalgic picture of Adelaide.

There’s absolutely no doubt that you must love this place (and not just because you’re posting pictures only about this place, specifying that these are nostalgic pictures…).

I don’t know you, but if we were all there right now, I could see the nostalgia in your eyes, as you conveyed it through the lens.

Unfortunately I am not a skilled photographer. Or I just don't know how to properly portray my nostalgia. Or both of these things. But the nostalgia is not due to the fact that I am there now or not, but only because of what I have experienced there in the past, which could not happen now, even if I were there.

And to say something like that, I can imagine only two possible reasons: in the past you lost exactly there your wallet with a lot of cash and very important documents, and you were never able to find it again. 2. A girl. …If I may be allowed to interpret in a totally non-indiscreet way, I would lean more towards the second option.

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Part 2 of the conversation.

I think it’s actually OK if you do so. Since he wrote that these pictures are about nostalgia, it will be a sweet (even if seemingly past) memory.

More a bittersweet memory… and yes, it’s about a girl. The memory in itself is very sweet, but only while it lasted, so before it existed only as a memory. And without going into specifics, this beach (and Adelaide in general) is at the heart of it.

I find that the images depict the state of mind very well. Any of us have experienced something similar in our lives (and very unfortunate those who have not), and the images lend themselves perfectly for anyone to put their own context into. So I reiterate, I find that you have portrayed nostalgia very deeply with these images.

Teach an image to represent the sweet uncertainty of the waiting for someone (well, of a girl, since we have already specified it). To convey through its most intense nuances her arrival (even if she ignored me). Or to catch with the same colors the most melancholic shades, because she did not arrive. How could an image reveal to an unaware observer the thrill that ran through me in the single glance she gave me one day, while playing beach volleyball with her friends? Or the feeling of desolation when the same friends arrived without her? For anyone else it would be two basically identical images, portraying a beautiful place. Instead, for me, one would be filled with the warmest hues, which would only fade over the years, while the other would be practically black and white. Teach an image to pour into the viewer's emotions the echoes of her voice, already distant when I took the image, but now long gone.

Yes, this can only be about a girl.

I couldn’t imagine any other reason.

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Part 3 of the conversation.

And now teach an image to recapture such echoes of her voice, however scattered they may be in the air, to put them back in order and rejoin them - no longer as echoes, but again as her voice, to the footprints in the sands that correspond to our footsteps as one day we walked there together. Now, that is precisely the moment in which what is already lost comes back to appear so vivid and real for an instant, that it almost blurs into the present. I say almost, because it will remain forever elusive. Lost. This is the nostalgia I am telling you about.

I am absolutely sure that I am not too indiscreet at this point in asking you to post an image depicting that girl.

What would be for him such an intense image to disrupt his mind entirely, for anyone else would portray just any other girl. It is him who can associate his personal emotions with it, placed in the context of Adelaide. Even if you remove the very presence of the girl, for him the place continues to enshrine her presence with such intense emotions.

However, it must be said that certain places are perfectly suited to give rise to unpredictable emotions, which evolve in them with surprising intensity. And to cherish their most ardent core.

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Part 4 of the conversation.

Are you from Adelaide?

No, we moved to Australia in my junior year of high school.

It must have been quite an impact at first, right?

Actually at that point my parents had been suggesting for some time that we were going to move to Australia, because of my dad's job. However, I must admit that before I got there, I didn't have Adelaide exactly on my radar among the places where I wanted to move. I changed my mind very soon.

I think that Adelaide is one of the most underrated cities.

And quality of life is only one of the criteria.

Totally agree. There are aspects of a lifestyle that images can not depict. Which to a distant observer may appear all too common, completely indifferent or perhaps even monotonous, but which as a whole form a very pleasant lifestyle.