Where Have All the Photos Gone?

Lately I have been struck by a wave of nostalgia and have been poring over old photos, of which I have many.  Most are organized and in albums, arranged chronologically on my bookshelves.  Unfortunately, I've sort of dropped the ball the last couple of years (not just with photos but with so many other things) and so the photos from the last year or two are either sitting on the shelf waiting to be put into albums or, sadly, not yet printed.  But, luckily, these are not the photos I am interested in.  It is the older ones of friends, faces and places that have piqued my interest. 

Today, in particular, I was looking for a set of photos that were taken at a photo shoot about 12.5 years ago.  I was the model, my best friend was the photographer and we were putting together an album for my then boyfriend (now husband) for his 25th birthday.  My boyfriend and I were separated by an ocean at the time so a photo album of me was an appropriate gift.  My girlfriend and I had a fabulous time doing the photo shoot and shot about 8 rolls of film.  I picked a dozen or so of the best photos for the album, which my husband still has.  My friend, the photographer, is also an artist and painted one of the photos for my husband, which was his Christmas present this year.  It was seeing the painting that made me start looking for the photos to begin with.  But, alas, it seems the rest of the photos have disappeared.

This is not entirely surprising, given that I have moved 6 times on 3 continents since those pictures were taken.  And I have added a husband, two children and a wealth of their belongings to the mix.  The result is that there is a lot of stuff that I am responsible for keeping organized.  This last move was particularly unorganized, perhaps because of the sheer volume of things needing to be packed and unpacked, and I notice this whenever I attempt to unearth anything from the collection of boxes in our basement, like I did today.

It is quite possible that we will be moving again in another year or so.  I really, really need to sort through the stuff and nonsense in my basement before then so that we don't move it all again to our next destination - wherever that may be.  It is a daunting task, and I feel I have so many other daunting tasks to contend with.  But perhaps this is the one I can start with.  Make a summer project out of it.  Toil away at it little by little.  Maybe have that garage sale my daughter has been asking for years to have.  And maybe, just maybe, find those pictures.