# @theokphotos on Instagram

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/Db0fwdehHn3
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/69287355-theokphotos-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/119d58ee79.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-08-09T13:00:06.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Sam Su (@theokphotos) — https://gondola.cc/theokphotos

## Caption

"You won't find the same person twice, not even in the same person." - Mahmoud Darwish

Dialogue from Before Sunrise (1995) and Before Sunset (2004)

I still haven't watched the Odyssey, but I've been relearning a lot about these fantastic myths recently and there are two that have stuck with me in this chapter of my life.

One is Calypso. A nymph cursed to an island where heroes would wash up, heroes who she couldn't help but fall in love with, but would always leave in the end. Recently I've felt like I've been stuck on this island, where people come in, stay a while, some briefly and some promise certain things, only to leave in the end and act like it didn't mean anything. The painful part isn't that people leave, it's those implicit or explicit promises that make you rearrange your island around their presence. When we are rejected, we often first question whether anything is wrong with the island, with ourselves. But I've learned that I have mistaken people's inability to nurture me for evidence that the island was cursed. Nobody's island is perfect. All I can do is continue to tend to it.

The second is Orpheus. His descent into the underworld, and facing something terrifying for someone he loved. Him looking back is tragic but does not make his love less real. I often look back at old texts, emails, pictures, moments, knowing there's nothing new to find, but I look anyways. It doesn't mean I haven't moved forwards. It's just to remind myself that it was real. It happened. 

People leave. We love them anyways, we look back. We keep walking. And the island is still ours.

"You know that book that I wrote in a way was like building something? So that I wouldn't forget the details of the time that we spent together. Y'know, like just as a reminder that once we really did meet, y'know, that this was real. This happened." - Before Sunset (2004)

Shot on @sonyalpha a1 and @thypoch_official 21mm T1.5 #sonyalpha #cinematic

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 705
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 55

## Credits

| Name | Username | Profile | Role |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Sam Su | @theokphotos | https://gondola.cc/theokphotos | Photographer |

## Tags

sonyalpha, cinematic

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