I grew up in a time of film photography. I always loved photography. It was more of a luxury then. It wasn’t free. It wasn’t possible to take a million photos of yourself and select the best one. Nobody took a photo of their breakfast or a piece of boring paper that they wanted to remember. Well maybe somebody. But I never saw it. It wasn’t possible to share the photos with anyone but people you knew well. Most of my modelling career was done in a time of film. Polaroids. No computer screen, only the photographer really knew what he was looking at. I say he because it was almost always a man. With a big camera. In charge.
I am glad I saw this time. I am glad I know a time before smart phones and selfies and filters and digital feeds. I am also glad I was there at the birth of the digital time. I got my first digital pocket camera when I was in my very early 20s. I had so much fun with it. It was a very early one that you could reverse the lens and see yourself in the display window. An early selfie camera before the word existed. We could take photos and delete them a second later and not worry about taking them to a lab and paying for them or waiting for them. I didn’t think they looked as poetic as my other photos, but I love photography and I love playing around with cameras and I dove in. And then I left them in a folder for nearly 20 years. Last summer I shared some with you and here comes the next instalment. I love how unfiltered and honest they are. I love seeing them again. I keep thinking of how to share them to a wider audience.