Fifty-Five Years Gone

I have spent some time the past week sorting through boxes of slides from the past 55 years. Some were taken by my parents of my brother and me. But most were pictures that I took, mostly between 1970 when I went to Europe at the end of my senior year in college and the mid 80s.

I had several hundred of Europe in 1970 including the Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie. I had over 1200 from trips to Israel in 1973 and 1980. I had 1200 or more of nature pictures of all kinds from all season. There was a trip to Arizona in 1973 and another visit to Europe that same year. I know there are at least 5-6 more slide cases as well as a number of old Kodak slide carousels still lurking in the closet, maybe up to another 2000 or more.

So far I have digitized a little less than 700 of the 7000 I have skimmed.

What surprised me- though it shouldn't have- was how many I looked at and said- "Gee. I wonder why I took that?" At the time, riding a bus in Israel or up into the Austrian Alps it might have made sense, but unless you write it all down as you go, it is just one more slide of one more rock or desert scene. It almost reaches the point of "You've seen one desert picture, you've seen them all."

Of course that is how the best pictures are made. They are the 1 in 10 or 20 or even 100 where the right elements of light, focus, movement, color, etc all come together to make a special picture. Back in the old days of film, photography teachers used to tell students that film was the cheapest thing they had at their disposal. You needed to use a lot of it to get the pictures you wanted. Of the 700 I have digitized some are special to me because of my memory of the incident. Some are good. Some are of some historic value- the Berlin Wall for example.

The other surprise was how well I remembered some of the pictures. They were the ones that stuck in my mind from when I took them or looked at them back home. That's also how I know there are more out there that I haven't found yet- I remember the pictures but haven't seen them yet.

And finally, from this vantage point, the differences in the different slide films was amazing. Kodachrome was, without a doubt, a great film. Many of the slides from 1970 still have a strong sense of color. Ektachrome had its bluish cast, Agfa with a slight green and Fuji a blend of Ektachrome and Kodachrome. Of course I will be playing with the pictures and getting ready to post many of them over at my pmPilgrim photoBlog sometime beginning in April.

It has been an interesting experience to immerse myself in all these pictures this past week. Yes, it's part of my cleaning house/downsizing movement. But it is also a way of pulling some of these various bits and pieces into today. We are all, as cliched as it sounds, made up of all these experiences. To review these times, to think back and reflect, to put all of one's times in perspective- that's part of our task. We do it for ourselves- finding answers and questions that apply today. But we do it for others so that we may share the story of our lives with them.

After all, we are all in this together.

What that means for all these slides I threw away and all the ones digitized, I have no idea. Any reflections?