This is one of the only photos I still have that I developed myself, and I don’t have the print, just this scan. I took it on my first “real” camera, a Canon AE-1 with some sort of prime lens — I don’t even remember anymore. It’s of a building at Bard College in upstate New York. Frank Gehry is the architect.
I took the photo during a weekend trip to visit my then-boyfriend in 2005, and developed it shortly after returning to North Carolina. I made at least one print that was fairly large, and I remember how exciting it was to see it develop. At the moment, I was so heartsick and lonely in the place where I was, and there was something really transporting about seeing a memory I already missed become something that I could hold in my hand and hang on my wall. I would change some things about this photo if I took it today — I don’t think I really understood what an f-stop was — but I still love looking at this view that I had during a really important and tumultuous period in my life.
szyzy 