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Contributing Writer Memory, Objects & Elegiac Prose

Marta Vidal

Marta Vidal is a writer and archivist whose work explores what physical objects hold — letters, worn photographs, things kept against all practical reason. She has contributed to Light & Composition since 2016. A photograph for Marta is always a form of preservation, something the photographer chose to keep. Her Reflections open with a specific object and arrive, gently, at what it means when the moment has long passed.

389 Published Reflections

Reflections by Marta Vidal

Showing 12 of 389 essays
The Weight of Water Photo of the Day
March 28, 2020

The Weight of Water

I keep a small, smooth stone on my desk, pulled from a riverbed I visited when I was still young enough to believe that time was a thing you could hold in your palm. It is cool to the touch, polished by years of relentless, patient friction against the current. There is a quiet violence […]
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The Weight of a Childhood Photo of the Day
March 2, 2020

The Weight of a Childhood

I keep a small, rusted tin box in my desk drawer, filled with the smooth, grey pebbles my brother and I collected from the riverbank when we were children. They are cold to the touch, heavy with the weight of afternoons that felt like they would never end. We did not know then that time […]
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The Weight of Silence Photo of the Day
February 23, 2020

The Weight of Silence

I keep a small, smooth stone in my pocket, pulled from a riverbed I haven’t visited in twenty years. It is cold to the touch, a heavy reminder of a place where the water moved faster than my thoughts ever could. We carry these fragments because they are anchors; they keep us from drifting away […]
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The Weight of Stone Photo of the Day
February 13, 2020

The Weight of Stone

I keep a small, smooth river stone on my desk, worn perfectly round by a current I will never see. It is heavy for its size, a dense anchor of silence that reminds me how much of the world exists entirely without our permission. We spend our lives trying to name things, to pin them […]
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The Weight of Stone Photo of the Day
February 11, 2020

The Weight of Stone

I keep a small, smooth river stone in the pocket of my winter coat, a weight I often find myself rubbing between my thumb and forefinger when the world feels too thin. It was pulled from a creek bed years ago, back when time seemed to move with the slow, deliberate patience of water carving […]
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The Weight of Fading Gold Photo of the Day
February 11, 2020

The Weight of Fading Gold

I keep a pressed marigold inside a heavy dictionary, its edges now translucent and brittle as a moth’s wing. It was plucked in the final, frantic heat of August years ago, back when time felt like a river that would never run dry. When I touch it, the flower threatens to turn to dust, yet […]
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The Weight of a Crumb Photo of the Day
February 5, 2020

The Weight of a Crumb

I keep a small, tarnished silver thimble in my desk drawer, a relic from a grandmother whose hands were always busy with mending. It is light, almost nothing, yet it carries the heavy silence of a house where every scrap of fabric was saved and every thread counted. We tend to measure our lives by […]
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The Fabric of Secrets Photo of the Day
February 3, 2020

The Fabric of Secrets

I keep a small, frayed scrap of blue velvet in my desk drawer, a remnant from a dress my grandmother wore when I was barely tall enough to reach her waist. It is worn thin at the edges, the color muted by decades of sunlight and touch. When I press it against my palm, I […]
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The Weight of Migration Photo of the Day
February 1, 2020

The Weight of Migration

I keep a small, silver thimble in my desk drawer, worn smooth by my grandmother’s thumb over forty years of mending. It is a heavy little thing, cold to the touch, yet it carries the phantom warmth of her hands and the rhythmic pull of a needle through linen. We often think of our lives […]
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The Unfinished Map Photo of the Day
January 29, 2020

The Unfinished Map

I keep a small, brass key in a velvet-lined box, though I have long since forgotten which door it once opened. It is heavy, cool to the touch, and worn smooth by the friction of a hand that is no longer here to guide me. We spend our lives collecting these fragments—keys to rooms we […]
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The Sweetness of Vanishing Photo of the Day
January 13, 2020

The Sweetness of Vanishing

I keep a silver teaspoon in the back of my drawer, its handle worn smooth by decades of Sunday afternoons. It belonged to a house that no longer stands, a kitchen where the air always smelled of vanilla and the frantic, beautiful heat of a summer that felt like it would never end. There is […]
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The Weight of Veins Photo of the Day
January 10, 2020

The Weight of Veins

I keep a pressed fern inside the pages of a dictionary, its edges brittle as parchment and dark as dried tea. It was plucked from a garden I no longer visit, a place where the air felt heavy with the scent of damp earth and coming rain. When I touch the fragile, skeletal veins of […]
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