I was recently permitted to raid the found photo archives of
The Brookline Booksmith, a wonderful bookstore that I often frequent. They had folders full of old photographs that had apparently been used as bookmarks at one time or another and forgotten about. As I was sifting through them, I found a series of 5 or 6 images that appeared to be family portraits; both candid and posed. On further examination, namely from reading the inscriptions on the back, I discovered that they were actually vacation photos from Romania. Each one had a different cryptic quote on the back. For instance, one read "A flower for an another flower"; and another stated "What do you dance? Twist in love?"
I have no idea what these quotations mean, though they intrigue and baffle me. Each one is signed "August 5, 1967, Bucharest, Romania" in scrawled cursive. Taken out of context, which these photos most certainly are, allow the imagination to run wild trying to fill in the gaps of this strange narrative. I am struck by the haunting, cinematic quality they possess. In actuality they are probably just snapshots, but to foreign eyes they convey much more.
Photographer Unknown
