Touches of Ink and Light: the cat in the cemetery

[TIL #2] ... the cemetery of pleasures

Tales of Ink and Light are short stories and poems told with words (the ink) and photographs (the light) that I send every 2 weeks. Every other week, I will simply share a photograph I made. And today’s image is …

The cat in the cemetery of Pleasures

That day, I was carrying a plastic film camera — a Lomography Lubitel, which really serves as much as a conversation-starting machine as a camera. Worried that my feline model would not be in a patient mood as I moved closer, i made this picture with the phone (capturing a raw file). Just after, I made another photo with the Lubitel, which in the end did not come out as well.

The cemitério dos Prazeres is a large cemetery in Lisbon. That the name translates as “the cemetery of Pleasures” inevitably invites to philosophical or poetical rêveries. Would it by any chance be a very agreeable neighbourhood to spend the afterlife, or is it the place where jubilance goes to die?

Cats can appear to engage in deep meditative thoughts and the next instant they reveal a shamelessly hedonistic nature. The wanderings of these pleasure-loving creatures carry a touch of life into what is otherwise known as the realm of the dead. I bet that they help the living feel less out of place in the lanes of the cemetery and familiarise themselves with their own mortal nature — purring in the sun, they soften the bitterness of our memento mori moments.

This cat standing on a border line is like an echo to Small Worlds, the first issue of Tales of Ink and Light, where the character defends their passion of crossing frontiers.

Tales of Ink and Light #1: Small Worlds

Issue 2 of the Tales will come out on Sat. 18 Nov.

P.S.: The Tales of Ink and Light are free to read. If they work on you — that is, if these tales make you smile, dream or think — would you do me a huge favour and share them with the people around you who you think would love them too?

Thank you for being here.