Photo diaries China, May 2017
And finally, there we were. The Great Wall of China. We only had to walk, walk a lot under that cruel sun.
And I was so happy, really.
I don’t know how long it was. When we arrived at the sealed part, which seemed like the end, we jumped it and kept walking. That part was not reconstructed. At each step, the road was more destroyed and more complicated to walk but also more interesting. Like those places that have been abandoned and nature took over, that’s how it looked.
I feel happy and fulfilled to have seen this with my eyes. It is one more achievement, something that I really wanted. I love to travel. One of the things that fascinate me most about it is how I dream of a place and I imagine it to be very exciting, ideal and almost unreal. Then I get there, and that’s it, I’ve done it. In a matter of seconds, I realize that it has gone from being a goal, a mystery, a dream … to instantly become an experience, a memory.
There are times that even being in the place seems surreal, and I can not completely believe it. Like when I arrived in Australia. I remember vividly, I had been there for a few weeks, but still, I was walking down the street and thinking “I’m walking, and I’m in Australia. This sidewalk that I’m stepping on is in Australia, and I’m far from everything. ”
Well, ok I’m weird.
***
I’m editing the photos of the Great Wall, and it’s happening again. It usually happens when I’m working on photos from my travels. A weird feeling of unsatisfaction, followed by a bit of anxiety.
I go to a place I always wanted to see, and take photos, and those pictures never seem to be good enough. But of course. Those photos can never live up to my expectations. Because I took them, and I was there, and I saw the beauty of it and no photo I could ever take will be good enough. Right.
Will I ever feel I’m capturing an image that makes justice of what I have just seen, and feel? I doubt it.
I need to be ok with it.
