2016/06/12

The Past, in the Future

Jacques Henri Lartigue - Bibi au Restaurant d'Eden Roc Cap d'Antibes (1920)

When I saw this photo for the first time, I was a little puzzled to find out that it was shot nearly a century ago. Not that it seemed unimaginable... Life 1920 could well have looked like this.

No, it was rather the fact that it appeared possible that the photo had been shot today.
Wine bottles still look the same, as do flowers, and table cloth. And her dress and that hat! Not from another world either. 
The lack of things makes it unlikely that the photo is set in today's world. No screens, no plastic, no cables. Nevertheless, it is perfectly reasonable to assume that there are places similar to the one in the photo right now, with the same kind of chairs, the same set of plates, even the same open heater. The sun would cast its shadows identically anyhow.

Sometimes I am wondering: Some people right now should already be living a life which would totally be reasonable in some not that near future, based on the same logic. Who are those people? And am I living such a life?

[Is this really enough? And the writing is a little struggly. Not sure what to do about this tho]