Pictures

[morrigirl]

Last night, I did something I've been meaning to do since 2002. I am...or, well, maybe "was" is a better word to use these days...really big on photography all through college. I have an extensive library of pictures that chronicle almost every Flunk Day, every graduation I gave a shit about, every significant group outing, every screwy dorm room and screwy roomate. I used to be down right anal when it came to dating them and putting them in my albums. But, round about April 2002, I started getting lazy about it. I put off dating and albuming pictures, and as a result I didn't take many during my final year at Knox. Even so, I still had this big, heavy box of pictures taken between April 2002 - June 7 2003 crying out for attention and love. So, last night, I sat down in front of my LJ, hauled out the box, dated each picture, and placed them in albums.

Strangely enough, I think having an LJ contributed to my putting this off for so long. Having a journal meant I would always be able to locate the exact date a particular event took place. So, knowing dates would be availible to me, I didn't worry about labelling them immediately before I forgot.

The whole process took me about three hours. I went through pictures taken on Flunk Day 2002, Where the Wild Things Are cast pics, Graduation 2002, Granduation 2003, and a couple random Grapes of Wrath and Laramie Project performance shots. When I was all done I had a full album chronicling everything from my final day of high school to the graduation of the class of 2002.

I was thinking it might be fun to scan some of my favorite shots and create a sort of photo journal of my college experience for the pure fuck of it; The sake of nostalgia, all that. But, I realized it would require far more reflection and effort than I'm really interested in putting into it.

Once upon a time, I read in some self-help book that it was a good idea to get rid of every picture you don't think you look good in and all pictures of people you have negative feelings toward. I liked the idea and promptly removed all such photos from my albums, tossing them into a cardboard box in my closet. And I'm glad I did it because now when I flip through my albums, nothing but positive memories come back to me. But, as a consequence, the albums do get a bit boring since all you see are pictures of the exact same people over and over again; Tina, Gayle, Jay, Libby, Heather. People like Leigh, Wes R., Lindsey, Mary, ex-boyfriends etc. have all been wiped from the record. Last night while I was filing away some picture I didn't want in the album, I came across a host of pictures of these people and more that I completely forgot I had. I have a mountain of Leigh, Lindsey, and Mary pics. most of which are amazingly good. Pictures of Clark rollerblading, Moses in a bikini, and Nick Grover playing hackey sack. While I was going through them I wondered if I could ever create an accurate photo journal without including these pictures? Leaving them out would be creating an idealized version of the truth, and while that's fine to do for myself in the form of albums since I already know the full story, leaving them out of a photo narrative seems weird. Creating a complete photo narrative would require a lot of sifting and scanning. So, until I feel like exerting the effort, or grow comfortable with the idealized image, I won't be making one any time soon.

Comments

[nabuchodonosor.livejournal.com]

I think it's a wonderful idea, lady. I went so far as to go through my big box of photos and pulled out some doubles and all-out bad photos (back of someone's head, etc). Farthest I got was rescanning a few favorites from high school and cropping them for better composition. Maybe I'll try it again on Halloween weekend.

A lot of the pictures I ended up tossing were of Her, too. I kept a few where I looked okay or happy, but there were a lot of junk shots, and some other pictures I tossed had me in very unflattering angles. Gone, and I feel better about going through photos and finding ones that really make me happy. I've kept one for my fridge to remind me why I'm on this diet and to stay the hell away from the Oreos, but other than that, out they go. Life's too short to dwell (I should tell myself that more often).

I keep telling myself someday I'll have things all digitized and online. Heh.

Point of this comment was, "I hear you" and "Great idea."

And I have a few shots from our apartment and the Homecoming that killed our phone, if it helps your chronicle any.

[satinalien.livejournal.com]

What do you do with a group shot that has both good and bad associations in it?

[morrigirl.livejournal.com]

It goes in the closet. In group shots of that nature my eyes tend to go straight to the face that fills me with the most seething rage. Kind of kills whatever positive associations the picture holds.

[morrigirl.livejournal.com]

DUDE! I have, like, zero pictures of that school year. My college chronicle jumps from graduation 02 to graduation 03 with 1 Grapes picture and three Laramie pictures in between! I would welcome any photo documentation you have of that school year.

[slinkybetty.livejournal.com]

I have an envelope which consists of nothing but photos of exes. It's nice to have them around if I feel the need to look at them ('cause I looked pretty good in some of those pics) but they're stashed away in a box so I don't have to be faced with them.

[gender-euphoric.livejournal.com]

I hardly have any pictures from first year. And those that I have are mostly of Debbie.

[morrigirl.livejournal.com]

Dude, I have so many pictures of you (from first year, from your periodic visits) that leafing through my album, it totally looks as though you went to Knox all four years.

I could scan some pictures for you one of these days if you'd like.

[morrigirl.livejournal.com]

I can't get rid unwanted pictures either. I figure, I paid money to have the darn things developed, why toss it all in the trash?