Time Capsules

The other day, my mother and I were cleaning the dining room when we happened upon a basket. Inside of the basket was a bag which, to our surprise, contained this:

Now, I'm assuming that most of the general population reading this will recognize that this is an assortment of undeveloped film (Yes, for all you spring chicken's out there, back in my day we didn't always have digital cameras or camera phones!)

Finding this was like a discovering a treasure chest for me. Most of the capsules as well as the two disposable cameras are unmarked, leaving an air of mystery to what is on them.

Photography has always been something that has fascinated me. While there are many mediums which serve to capture human history, art, emotion and achievement, every other medium of expression, be it painting, music, writing or speech pales in comparison to photography.

I see photographs as something sacred. They are literally a moment in time and space that is immortalized on a piece of paper. There are details, memories, and emotions that can never be replicated again. Places thousands of miles away lie in your fingertips. The dead come back to life. Time stands still.

Do you remember when life was simpler?

Sometimes, I wonder what happens to the old photographs hidden away in a box in the attic of a house of someone who just died. Do people just come in and see no value to the photographs and throw them away? It's painful to think of those moments that were so precious to someone being casually discarded like they mean nothing.

We'll always have that summer...

Sometimes in the late of the night, I've fantasized about opening a photograph museum...  A place where people could bring old photographs without owners or homes, and we'd store them in albums on shelves. People from all walks of life could come in and enjoy the photographs for themselves, guessing just what the photographer and subjects were thinking... feeling... experiencing. They would breathe life into the past, and make their own memories.

Now a days, people snap pictures every 3 seconds and delete the ones they don't want without a second thought. It's part of our digital age to do so, and I myself am guilty of it. But there's something precious about physical photographs... they're so tangible and fragile; they must be protected.

My first goal will probably be to develop the following roll of film. It says "Bobby's B-day, 2-13-99", one day before my actual 11th birthday. This capsule contains memories from 14 years ago... will I even remember the moments it contains? Will I remember the child I call myself staring back at me... his thoughts and dreams? Maybe someday, you'll find his smiling face in a box in an attic somewhere after I'm long gone... if you do, please give that little boy a home.