Fresh

Usually when I take photos of descansos they have been there for years, even decades, and have transitioned from tragedy to memory.

Not today.

My wife commented that there were photos of a memorial on our local Facebook group. “This just happened,” she told me. The accident was just a few miles from our house at an intersection that I drive through all the time so I grabbed the Hasselblad and hopped in the car.

My timing was bad and the sun’s position in the sky made it hard to get the shots I would have liked but I did my best to honor this young woman. She was seventeen, and her death was just an accident.

It was honestly a little odd to be at such a fresh memorial, and a lot sad. There was another person there when I was there taking photos; I wanted to talk to her but didn’t. It didn’t seem right.