Photo Lists

I was trying to remember something this week, and I wondered if it was written down in an old journal, so I started to thumb through old journals and found one that contained entries from three early trips: a road trip to Canada, Paris, and London.

But what struck me was that in the back of the journal, from the final page moving toward the front, I had written down notes on every photo I took. There were only 24 or 36 photos on a roll of film (though it looked like I must have been able to squeeze an additional one or two onto a roll because I had some lists that stated 26 or 38 photos), so the lists weren’t long. And I only took between two to four rolls on each trip.

But I wrote down notes because I wouldn’t see those photos for weeks. How would I remember that this was a “beautiful building on Rue Rivoli across from the Louvre” three weeks later when I finally developed the picture? The difference today is that you see photos instantly, so you start building those memories from the image instantly. In the olden days, we saw something once, and then we had a long period of time before we saw an image of it again.

It was just funny to find the lists. Even funnier to read about our “romantic kisses over the Seine.”