And then, I hit a road block. A good one, mind you,
but still, an emotional-can’t-let-go-I-must-be-going-crazy road block. I
decided to purge my photo boxes.
The first thing I realized is that I had never done this before. I’m a child of
the 80’s, so was brought up to cherish pictures. 35mm film was expensive back
then, and we did not waste it. And
when we got our prints back, we kept them, even if they were blurry or had
evidence of the photographer’s fingers. A picture had to be unrecognizable to be thrown away. Or maybe my obsession is actually founded in the fact that I chose Photography as my major in college.
That mindset was highlighted by my hundreds of
snapshots of landscape, some of which I can’t quite recognize. There is also a
whole section on Walt Disney World parades, and some snapshots of friends from
summer camp whose faces I cannot name.
So I decided to tackle them as I do most of my things.
If I had to think about it for more than a second, it’s gone. If it’s blurry or
badly taken, it’s gone. If it’s of a friend I can’t remember, it’s gone. If it’s
from the digital age and I have the prints, it’s gone. And for those portfolios
on Disney and the Scottish landscape, they were narrowed down to three shots.
My two boxes quickly became a third of a box. And now I
can honestly say that I love all the
pictures I have.
