Friday, May 23, 2014

The Future Tsar Nicholas II in 1870

Via Tiny-Librarian. To quote:
You are looking into the face of a child, making eye contact across centuries. You see the play of lights on his eyes, his lashes, the patterning of the iris. He is serious, intent - perhaps a little questioning. Yet because this is a particular child - the child who will one day grow into Nicholas II, last Tsar of Russia - there is a historical irony at play here. You are aware of his future, he is not, and you are meeting him at a moment when the tragedy of the revolutionary years was beyond imagining. It might still have been prevented. He stares into the camera lens over 130 years ago. The camera and the photographer are long gone but the child lives on, his gaze captured on a frail piece of paper as if it were here and now.    ~from The Camera and the Tsars by Charlotte Zeepvat.
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3 comments:

julygirl said...

I do not know if it is because I already know what was to happen, but his face seems to emanate the sorrow and tragedy that is yet to come not only to Mother Russia but to the entire western world.

elena maria vidal said...

I totally agree!

Centauro said...

Sin querer lo vemos a traves de los ojos de la historia. Un precioso niño angelical en todo su candor.
Totalmente de acuerdo contigo...