Observation Balloon on Fire, Poignant Annotated Photo of Photo, WWI Real Photo Postcard antique handmade toy from the slightly drooping rose

from the slightly drooping rose at its center to the buoyant lilac that you can just about smell

Photos document first one

ink in paper

made by someone a hundred years ago or so with a great aesthetic sensibility I think

who feels both forever elusive and larger than life

Observation Balloon on Fire, Poignant Annotated Photo of Photo, WWI Real Photo Postcard antique handmade toy from the slightly drooping roseThe striking image here I believe is specifically of a German observation balloon being attacked by British planes during WWI poetically described in the handwritten annotation on this real photo postcard as "Observation balloon on fire." It is of course the dramatic, potent image itself that drew me to this, but I also find it quite evocative metaphorically (living in a surveillance state as we do) and looking closely one can see this is actually a