The Future in the Past

Travel Photography Scholarship 2010

Syria | Saturday, October 16, 2010 | 4 photos

This is a story about childhood and innocence- an oft used theme, perhaps, but for good reason. Taken at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria, these photos represent to me what is most beautiful about travel. That is, the opportunity to see ones self while looking at the other.
In Damascus for only three days, on a weekend break from my semester abroad in Amman, my goal was to absorb the history, the architecture, and the art of the oldest capital in the world. Too often, as a student of archaeology, I find myself directed backwards, appreciating the past without remembering to turn towards the future. Thus, I went to the Umayyad Mosque to see a beautiful building, but I left with a refreshed perspective.
As I entered the courtyard of one of the most important mosques in the world, I expected a reverent atmosphere, a stillness. Instead, I found the courtyard filled with children playing, families relaxing. In short, I found people connecting with the original function of the mosque as not only a place to pray, but also a place to find and cultivate community.
Mosques have become so politicized in the current environment, and so divisive. But what I saw when I entered the 10th century complex was something timeless, without boundary, and eternal. I encourage the viewer to remove the spectacular backdrop, and discover a simple image that both predates the marble of the flagstones and postdates the ignorance that pervades so much of our discussion of religion today: the pure ecstasy of children just being children.