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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
Ink Beneath the Skin Photo of the Day
January 5, 2017

Ink Beneath the Skin

I keep a small, silver thimble in my sewing box that belonged to my grandmother. It is worn smooth on one side, a testament to thousands of hours spent pushing a needle through heavy wool, mending what was fraying at the edges. There is a quiet dignity in that wear, a physical record of a […]
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The Weight of Small Things Photo of the Day
January 1, 2017

The Weight of Small Things

I keep a small, rusted key in a velvet-lined box, though I have long since forgotten which door it once opened. It is a heavy, cold thing, worn smooth by the friction of a pocket it occupied decades ago. We spend our lives accumulating these fragments—the keys to locks that no longer exist, the pressed […]
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The Weight of the Journey Photo of the Day
December 27, 2016

The Weight of the Journey

I keep a small, rusted compass in my desk drawer, its needle long ago surrendered to the stillness of the casing. It belonged to a grandfather who spoke of distances as if they were living things, measured not in miles but in the slow, rhythmic beating of wings against the wind. To hold it is […]
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The Weight of a Feather Photo of the Day
December 24, 2016

The Weight of a Feather

I keep a small, iridescent feather tucked inside the pages of an old ledger, a remnant of a summer morning that has long since dissolved into the quiet hum of the past. It is impossibly light, yet it carries the gravity of a moment when the world felt perfectly still, as if the air itself […]
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The Weight of Sunday Photo of the Day
December 13, 2016

The Weight of Sunday

I keep a small, chipped ceramic saucer in the back of my cupboard, stained by the ghost of a thousand afternoons. It was my grandmother’s, and for years, it held nothing but the crumbs of simple, buttery biscuits baked in a kitchen that smelled of vanilla and patience. There is a specific, quiet gravity to […]
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The Weight of Summer Photo of the Day
December 2, 2016

The Weight of Summer

I keep a small, silver thimble in my desk drawer, worn smooth by my grandmother’s thumb as she mended the linens of my childhood. It is a heavy little thing, cold to the touch, yet it carries the warmth of every stitch she ever pulled through cotton. We spend our lives gathering these fragments—the bruised […]
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The Mirror of the Pavement Photo of the Day
November 28, 2016

The Mirror of the Pavement

I keep a small, silver thimble in my desk drawer, worn smooth by years of my grandmother’s thumb. It is a hollow thing, yet it feels heavy with the weight of all the hems she mended and the tears she stitched shut. When the rain falls against my window, I find myself tracing its rim, […]
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The Architecture of Growth Photo of the Day
November 26, 2016

The Architecture of Growth

I keep a small, dried pressed leaf inside the pages of an old ledger, its veins brittle as spun glass. It was once part of a summer that felt permanent, a season where the light seemed to thicken in the air, holding us in place. When I touch the leaf, I am reminded that everything […]
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The Weight of a Ribbon Photo of the Day
November 18, 2016

The Weight of a Ribbon

I keep a small, frayed silk ribbon in the back of my desk drawer, the kind used to tie back hair during childhood summers. It has lost its original luster, the edges curling inward like a leaf in autumn, yet it holds the phantom shape of a bow. To touch it is to remember a […]
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The Weight of First Light Photo of the Day
November 13, 2016

The Weight of First Light

I keep a pressed petal from a wild hibiscus inside the pages of a book I rarely open. It has lost its original, violent red, fading instead into the color of a bruised sunset or a secret kept too long. When I touch it, I am reminded that seasons do not announce themselves with trumpets; […]
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The Weight of the Daily Photo of the Day
November 10, 2016

The Weight of the Daily

I keep a small, rusted tin box in my desk drawer, filled with the silver foil wrappers of candies I shared with my father years ago. They are thin, crinkled things, useless to anyone else, yet they hold the shape of his thumbprints and the quiet rhythm of our afternoons. We are all, in our […]
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The Weight of Stillness Photo of the Day
November 5, 2016

The Weight of Stillness

I keep a small, smooth river stone on my desk, worn down by years of water rushing over its surface until it became perfectly balanced in my palm. It is a quiet thing, heavy with the memory of a current I never saw, a relic of a journey that happened long before I arrived. We […]
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