Saturday, April 23, 2016

Twenty-two Years Ago


This week I had a panic attack. I was looking on my hard drive for a series of work I did in Pozas, the Surreal Garden. I didn't always keyword back sometime in 2000's and that was when the work was shot with a Holga camera and medium format film. So using keywords wasn't helping. Running through folder names wasn't working either. Oh, I have backup hard drives but the panic starts to set in. Could this hard drive be dying? What else could be missing? What will it cost to have it restored if it isn't on the other backup drives? That is, if it can be restored. Finally I noticed a folder name, FotoFest 2006. It was inside the folder for the year 2006. My file plan is to put images in yearly folders and then in sub-folders chronologically by date made. These images were not made in 2006 but I opened it and there were all of the images I had been searching for. I melted back into my chair.

I guess at the time when I named the folder, FotoFest 2006 and put it inside the year 2006 it seemed like a reasonable thing to do because these images made up my Goldesberry Gallery FotoFest show in 2006. But it wasn't logical in 2016. It gave me quite a scare. And it caused me to look back at old images just to be sure they were still there.

This particular scanned negative was made at a festival in Ocotlan in the State of Oaxaca in 1994. Twenty-two years ago and yet when I look at these young men running through the crowd with the fireworks exploding from the structures over them, I can still remember everything about that night.

I've been a photographer for a long time.

Twenty-two years ago. Isn't that something!



4 comments:

  1. I can just imagine your panic. So glad you found what you were looking for.........did you find the photos of Toller Cranston's gardens? I remember when you took those photos. They were/are exquisite!

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    1. I'll have to take a look but I'm sure they are there.

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  2. You have so many beautiful and insightful photographs. I found you at Billieblog and followed you to here. Somehow you got lost in the computer crashes and rebuilds and when I googled you, it did not take me to your site. I am so happy to find you again and learn you are still being true to your love of photography and beautiful places and things. Thank you Billie for all your posts, through thick and thin, you always shine bright! Teri
    (I lost my husband to pancreatic cancer when he was 43 and I was 34, I never remarried)

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  3. Teri, So glad you found me again. And thank you so much for your comments about my work. I'm really sorry about your husband. He was far too young. Both of you were. How long ago did you lose him? At my age, I really can't imagine re-marrying but I still get a little tug at my heart when I'm with friends who have been married for a long time. I do miss him.

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