Peace Lantern, Golden Gate Park

To give myself a good kick in the pants to start posting more often, I thought I’d share some of the stories behind my photographs. Starting today, I’ll be posting one story of each photograph. Some may be short, some may be long, some may be real, and others may be fictional. I’ll try to post daily, but that might not happen – so we’ll see how long it takes to get to 365 posts! Today’s story is of the short, real, factual, you-might-actually-learn-something variety. Look away if that’s scary!!

A couple of months ago, I spent the day in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco with the family. I’ve always wanted to visit the Japanese Tea Garden, so even though it was closing time, we decided to go in and enjoy what time we could there. I’m glad we did, because it was a calming, beautiful place to wander around in.

As I turned a corner, marveling at the sun-dappled light filtering down through the trees, I came upon this lantern. A peace lantern, it was given to the U.S. as a sign of friendship, celebrating the U.S. – Japanese Peace Treaty, from a group of Japanese school children. The description moved me, so I snapped a quick shot of it, documenting the sentiment so as not to forget.

I never have taken a picture I’ve intended. They’re always better or worse.
Diane Arbus

This quote from Arbus is one of my favorite quotes, and that’s how I felt about this picture (for the record, it came out “better”). The muted feeling of the greens with the jolt of warmth from the sunlight makes it one of my favorite shots from that day.

Filed under:
365 days of stories, My Art by Courtney