Recently, I was cleaning out the dreaded “room of stuff” in my house when I came across piles and piles of old portfolio pieces from school. It was a fascinating trip down memory lane. There were things I’d forgotten about; paintings, etchings, prints, and yes, even photographs. As I sifted through all of it I started getting sentimental and then, between two binders of old negatives, was an 11×14 print I had completely forgotten but instantly remembered. It was (now looking back) my very first wedding image!
I remembered the day well. I was on a photo walk with my friend, Brooke, in Buffalo, NY. We were on some kind of artsy mission; filling our weekend with tracking down all the Frank Lloyd Wright homes in Buffalo and visiting the art museums. At one of the museums, there happened to be a wedding. I was struck by this happening because, well, no one really thinks about weddings in college, and two, I had no idea people would get married at art museums. So we stood and watched a bit as the photographer was bustling about, ordering the party around and I watched as the little girl wandered away (probably bored to tears) and started playing around the columns of the museum and I was inspired to take a shot. I thought there could be some great metaphor I could come up with in here about childhood or life or love that I could be critique session gold at my next class. I thanked myself for packing my Tamron 70- 300mm for my old Pentax K mount 35mm SLR and lined up for this shot.
After I developed the film (good old T-Max 400) I remember loving it at the time but ultimately nixing it because it didn’t fit with any of my other work. Finding it again was like unlocking a time capsule. It reminded me how maybe we can really have things right all along (even if we don’t notice at first)! At the time I took this, I would have never even fantasized that wedding photography was going to grow to be my full time career, but here I am, 13 years after taking this, with over 10 years in the business under my belt. Life is so amazing!
I challenge you to go back and sift through your early work. See what you find. Where did your first instincts take you? Where are you now? I can’t wait for you to find that image you forgot about but that you love! with what you find!
Interesting and inspiring… Makes me wanna go back and check my films… For now I just have my photography work on http://www.brijeshkapoor.com... Please check if you have time… Your feedback will be valuable…