The most fascinating aspect of this multi-generation memorial in Naha's Asahigaoka Park is the deterioration of the portraits. Water has worked its way into the frames, forcing the faces to struggle for recognition through a haze of oxidation. Memorials and tombs have always represented mankind’s plea for remembrance, yet nature eventually intervenes, as it does here. I've made a similar image to this one, featuring a photograph on a tombstone in Zagreb, Croatia. While the subject matter is essentially the same, the point of the image is entirely different because the pictures on this Okinawan tombstone are gradually fading from view, while the photo on the Croatian gravestone is strikingly vivid and life like. (See http://www.pbase.com/image/50093459 , to compare images.)