I had a conversation with a friend in between taking these photos and chilling on a bench for a popsicle break. We texted back and forth on what it means to be “boxed in” by an interest or a subject or an identity, and how our shared completist urge can get in the way of getting out of comfort zones and trying something new. And it made me think about how we all need containers to make sense of the world, and how “boxes” can be reframed as “neighborhoods,” or places we linger and repeat ourselves and become more and more familiar and known. For those of us who shy away from any of these patterns — repetition, recognition, or even slowing down — the neighborhood (real or imagined) will feel like a trap. But there are seasons for migration and seasons for nesting; times for flying from fixity and times for deepening roots.
These thoughts came to me as I relayed them in electronic missives across oceans of fiberglass, interrupted on occasion by a passing comment on the weather; the stark ironies of it all were not lost on me. So here I am repeating myself with a shot I took on digicam, now taken on film. I am becoming more and more familiar with this new locale, both real and metaphorical.
I went through this whole roll on Monday and got my scans back from @glazersphotolab today, which is a very decent turnaround that I’m sure will eventually get bogged down when every photographer in the city swarms this newest lab. But having options to choose from is a relief.
The guy scanning these even took the time to email me yesterday with a head’s up about the light leaks he’d noticed in my shots. “Just something to keep an eye on.” I figured that this was because he was either super type-a and judgey, the nicest guy on the block, and/or thought my shots were so good that a bit of white ghosting might upset me…
Whatever the case may be, I’m so pleased with these. I’m getting more and more comfortable with metering and manual exposure and really don’t mind the leaks. They add character. I’ll get this old Nikon CLA’d at some point, but I find its wispy fingerprints kinda dreamy for now.