Recently, I was backing up some hard drives and looking through some old DVD’s I’d copied files to — y’see kids, back in the old timey days we used drink coasters to store data on…it was a more innocent time.
Anyway, looking through digital files isn’t NEARLY as illuminating or serendipitous as actual prints or contact sheets, but there were some thought provoking surprises. Namely, some images from an old Canon point-and-shoot camera (remember kids, this was before we put those into our phones) of a month-long motorcycle trip looping through Montana and Wyoming, among other places.
The pictures that stood out for me were almost-casual, accidental photos, the photographic equivalent to doodling on a notepad while waiting on hold. With the passage of over 15 years (!) these images, which seemed throwaway at the time, take on a lot more resonance now.
Our view of the USA certainly has changed, and I wonder how many of the people I’d met back then would espouse some drastically different quirks, these days.
Apart from sharing some images I found interesting, what I hope to get across is to not take the here-and-now for granted — that the things you’d think someone weird for photographing (or, worse yet, attack them on social media) today mean something…and will only mean more once we’re removed from the distraction of the moment.
So, take a ton of photos. Print them ALL. And don’t lose them. Not on a phone, not on a hard drive or even a drink coaster.
Highway rest stop, Montana.
Bar and Grill; Cody, Wyoming.
Custom motorcycle; Devil’s Tower.
Saloon, Wyoming.
Window display, Montana.
Firetower Coffee House, 2005.