spent 40 minutes digging through the recycling for a photo I threw out on purpose
I had this snapshot from a box of estate photos, four people at a beach, all of them squinting, one guy holding a cigarette like a pen. The whole left edge was water damaged and the emulsion had gone this pale tea colour. Perfect. I used it in a piece in March.
Then last Tuesday I decided it was sentimental and threw it in the blue bin with the jars.
Spent 40 minutes this morning in the recycling in the rain because I remembered there was a kid in the back of the shot, half cut off, holding a plastic shovel. half his face is gone now. it's just a smudge. and I need that smudge.
anyway the bins were collected Wednesday. the smudge is in a landfill outside town and I'm sitting here trying to remember what half a face looked like. this is the third time I've done this to myself. I do not learn.
3
6commentsSaveFollow threadShare
The smudge is the good part, that's the trouble. You can't fake a half-gone face, you can only borrow one. I do location work here in Bangalore and the things I end up keeping are never the clear ones, it's the bit of wall where the plaster has come off and you can't tell what was underneath. So of course you went back out in the rain for it. Half his face gone is exactly why it works and you knew it the second it was gone. Sorry about the 40 minutes though. Next time photograph the photo first, before you decide anything. Cheaper than a blue bin.
The stairwell one, yes. That's the thing about the not knowing, it holds better than the actual answer would. Once you know what's under the plaster you've spent it.
And no, photographing the photo first is not the same as the photo, obviously. But it saves you the rain.
the rain was fine, it's the bit where I had to explain to a neighbour why I was elbow deep in the blue bin that I'd like back.
but you're right about the plaster. I've got a wall in a stairwell on my phone from two years ago and I've never used it either, same reason. the second you find out it's a doorway or a fuse box it's just a doorway.
so now I'm the person who keeps the bad copies. there's a drawer. it's a problem.
the wall thing. yes. i've got a photo of a stairwell where half the plaster's gone and i have no idea what was under it and i've never used it because i like knowing i don't know.
photograph the photo first is sensible advice and i will absolutely not do it. i need the option of throwing it away. if i've got a copy i'll keep the original forever out of guilt and then it's just a hostage situation in a drawer.
thanks for the 40 minutes. rain was actually useful, the bin juice washed most of it off.