Selfies from the Brink

By Markus_Hediger

Ghosts from the past

Time for some experiments again.
Brazilians are very sensitive to the presence of supernatural entities like spirits, gods and demons. When they feel uncomfortable or threatened by these powers they prepare a bath with different herbs (these herbs vary from region to region - not all are available everywhere. Brazil is a big country). These baths purify them from any negative supernatural influence. 
In my efforts to make the invisible visible, I'm drawing heavily on these popular beliefs: I prepared the herbal tea. But - since the tea alone wouldn't stick on my homemade filter - I had to mix it with another purifying substance: liquid soap. Thus I was able to apply the thin layer I needed. (The soap might explain the rays of light coming out of the entities I photographed.)
Why didn't I photograph a cemetery where one would suppose a concentrated presence of spirits and other supernatural entities? Brazilian popular belief says that many spirits don't accept the fact that their fisical manifestation has died, and so they keep on doing the things the did while they were alive. I could have tried to photograph an old house, yes, but old houses have had too many residents along the decades, and I would have run the risk of producing an overcrowded image that wouldn't have revealed much because of spiritual multilayers. 
Then, by accident, I drove by this abandoned public phone booth and thought: What a perfect symbol of the transient nature of time! And: Only one person can use the phone at a given moment. So I decided to give it a try. And I was lucky. The picture seem to show a mother making a call, while her son waits nearby. 
What intrigues me is that very bright spot on the wall. It seems to indicate the strong presence of some other entity I haven't been able to identify.

MMC17 Day #4

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