Mother-Daughter Photography with DC Monuments

The United States of America was declared independent on July 4, 1776. While its inhabitants go back further than that, this country has had a rich history albeit short compared to other countries. And many of the traces of major events left behind through history are concentrated in the National Capital Region (NCR). I once worked with a historian who helped me realize the small imprints that different parts of history have on our everyday lives. How these events shape a generation that ripples down the line to future generations. He mentioned how some families put cups upside down in cupboards because the Dust Bowl of the 1930s resulted in huge clouds of dust lifting from stripped soil that would then settle inside cupboards. How fascinating! I didn’t understand the value of history until that moment in my mid-20s. As a math major, I could grasp cause and effect but it wasn’t until that moment that I realized the past truly impacts today whether we know it or not. It may seem strange as I grew up witnessing 9/11 on TV and saw how this impacted national security. I just hadn’t realized how history could touch even the smallest parts of our lives.

This trip to the DC monuments stemmed from a desire to challenge myself with taking pictures of fountains while also seeing these iconic monuments and memorials up close. My loving spouse had also recently bought me a wide angle lens that would make easy work of capturing the Washington Monument. It was a 10th wedding anniversary present - thank you, my loving husband, spouse and best friend! Indeed, he is the one taking the pictures of me with our daughter. I usually have a vision of what I want the picture to look like and then he makes it a reality. I couldn’t do what I do without him. And I know how easily a story can make it seem like people who’ve been together a long time never have issues. I like to think that a marriage isn’t all sunshine and rainbows (arguments are inevitable), but life is better if you weather it together (Jessie Sima’s “Weather Together”). Or perhaps: Love transcends all dimensions (Interstellar).

Pop culture quotes aside, my daughter had a blast playing around the fountains. You can’t wade in the fountains, but you can sit and put your feet in. So, she took full advantage of that. We’re still in peak summer heat, so the water felt nice and cool on our feet. Between my daughter’s bouts of fun, we spoke about the importance of the Washington Monument and how it was an obelisk in memory of our first president. The World War II memorial itself held the fountains and we could see all the different states and territories engraved in stone where people had left their homes and died in battle. I pointed out the pillar with “Guam” written on it and talked about her heritage. I then pointed out Hawaii and talked about where it all began (for the US at least). December 7, 1941 - a date that will live in infamy. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor from the air. Indeed, Guam was once occupied by Japan during WWII and now has Japanese stores and restaurants. The food is good. We remember WWII and how it shaped history but nations change and so do the people. My daughter is a melting pot of 6 different ethnicities and is a symbol of that.

We didn’t quite make it to the Lincoln Memorial as the heat was becoming too much and we had to trek back to the metro, but we got to stare at it across the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. We talked about how slavery was once a thing. How it still persists in tiny pockets of the world but how we live in a privileged country where slavery was abolished in 1865. People still feel the pain of the slavery era many generations later, but pain fades with time and with each generation of folks that stand on the shoulders of the giants who came before them. And a little love thrown in.