Melba Bourque Thibodeaux
Undated
THESE OLD PHOTOGRAPHS of Catahoula have led me down many a rabbit hole, none moreso than this pair of undated images — further proof that photographs are ghosts, and that as long as images of you survive, you never really die.
Maybe it’s the shock of seeing the entire back side of a long-haired woman so long ago, a portrait in reverse, or how when she spins around she takes exactly one half-step toward the camera, causing her to loom larger in the second frame of this primitive video, twisting upward like a phantom, the hem of her possibly velvet dress meeting the sharp edge of the print, reinforcing the appearance of hovering.
Maybe it’s the way the car in the background disappears in an instant. Now you see it. Now you don’t.