fishermen friends

[lobelia321]

Did anyone else buy The Guardian yesterday and see this beautiful picture of two fishermen from Aberdeen, taken before the First World War?

More here and here.

I am quite in love with this postcard and may need to visit this exhibition soon, in the hope of obtaining a proper reproduction. I find the image quite, quite extraordinary. The fact that it betokens friendship, at the very least, between a black man and a white man, on what seems a footing of absolute equality and a sort of innocent trust, the tug of history because this was on the eve of war and who knows what became of these two?, the possibilities opening out beyond our view of early-twentieth century class and race relations, and (not least) the trace, no matter how faint, of something more -- all of this makes me feel a sort of wobbly yearning.

P.S. This pic is small and dark. If you can't see it: the black man has his hand on the white man's wrist. The pic is also cropped: at the left edge, there is actually a small table with a framed photo of a little girl.