TWO MEN BEYOND THE KEN

In June 1826 Shaykh Ahmad, the leader of the Shaykhis, passed away at the age of about 75 near Medina. Leadership of this community passed to Siyyid Kazim. At the same time, in the same year, the "first successful recording of nature"1 took place in France using a modified lithographic technique. Was this just a coincidence? -Ron Price with thanks to Gisele Freund, Photography and Society, David Godine, Boston, 1980, p. 22.

I see them through the eye of time
So distant is their story;
Yet in memory's warming lens
They're cherished for their glory.
Viewed through yet another glass
The focus is quite clouded;
For these men of so long ago
On history's line they're shrouded.
Bathed in the few details we've got
Attraction and repulsion,
The image is not distortion-free
But eternal is the emulsion.
The first glimmerings
Of the dawn of a new day,
In their midst were born Two Men
Who would say and write
Words beyond the ken
Of men and of angels.

Ron Price
29 October 2003