Lessons from Supposed Ruin
Saturday, June 19, 2010 at 12:03PM 
Seattle busker (Diana+, Kodak GC400)
I traveled to Seattle a few months ago and got my first-ever look at the city. Our hotel squatted near the Space Needle, and although we didn't make it to the top, I found plenty of interesting sights scattered underneath. I took my Diana+ with me everywhere, eager to try out one of my first rolls of 35mm film. I took several shots that had me giddy with delight before my camera jammed in front of the fruit stand outside of Pike's Place Market. Delight turned to despair. What about my pictures of the Space Needle as viewed through tree branches? And my photo of the Sweet Big Ass grapes sign? I fretted I'd lost them all, including the sweet old busker pictured above.
Later that evening, in near darkness at the end of a hallway, Dar helped me to untangle the film from the camera and wrap it in foil, a last-ditch effort to keep out the light and salvage anything we could. It turns out that I'd loaded the film incorrectly because I'd been in a hurry that morning. Oh, the agony of haste!
When I got home about a week later, I took the foil-wrapped film to the lab along with two other rolls. When I returned to pick them up, they handed me three rolls, but only charged me for two, saying that the third was blank. I was sad, but not surprised.
That third roll of film sat untouched on my desk for a week or more before I felt a nudge to crack open the squat little canister and unroll the negatives. And there -- there! -- were my photos. The Space Needle! The Sweet Big Ass Grapes! The busker who looked like a leprechaun! The carousel! Lemons and tomatoes at the fruit stand! The images were spaced unevenly across the negative, but the images themselves were fine.
That experience reminded me of a few things about making art -- and about living. Take your time with things that will matter in the end. Keep going until you risk breaking something important. Don't let disappointment ruin your adventure. Trust the experts, but don't blindly believe them when they say all is lost. And when you think all is lost, check just to be sure.
Reader Comments (6)
Also: you were in Seattle??